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Showing posts from 2017

And Now They're Trying to Take Down Columbus' Statue!

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America - Summer 2016 — Colin Kaepernick chooses to sit for the National Anthem. When asked why, he shares that the song’s third verse is about killing slaves… he also reminds us all that two Black Men were murdered by police in July, and that BOTH OF THESE EVENTS WERE CAPTURED ON FILM and yet, America doesn't seem to have a problem with it.   Our police have a terribly difficult job and have come such a long way.     Half the country is enraged with the football player’s decision to sit.     He disrespected those who have fought and died for ALL of us … None who share this opinion seem to address either concern that led to Kaepernick’s decision, most notably, and definitely not, the whole   “hireling or slave… gloom of the grave”   portion of the reasoning for his silent protest. America - Summer 2017— White Supremacists stage rally in Charlottesville – location chosen as a statue of Robert E Lee is being removed and the park dedicated to the Confederate leader is bei

The Long Jump

The Long Jump  (nonfiction essay - some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals)   It’s mid-June, four months before Glenn will sing to me at my locker.  Today is one of the final half-days of my freshmen year of high school.  I have made it.  A shaky start perhaps, but now sitting on the grass amongst the coolest kids of my class as we crack jokes while signing one another’s yearbooks, it’s clear my year was a success.  It’s a perfect blue-skied early summer afternoon with just the slightest of breezes.  Perfect t-shirt and shorts weather.  The entire school sits on the visitors’ side of the football field.  The upperclassmen are up in the bleachers and us lowly freshmen are on the grass—we don’t mind this separation today. All two thousand of us are on the foreign visitors’ side, as it is closer to the school.  We were not made to cross the football field as someone official deemed that where we now were was a safe enough dista