Not being silent

I want to write about cake and pie and squirrels and books I've read, and to brag, just a little, about how great our kitchen looks* now that we've removed, sanded, primed, painted, and re-hung all of our cabinets with freshly toothbrush scrubbed hardware. I still have thoughts about Aster's surgery and a back log of flower images, prairie, garden and mountain.

I don't want to write about racism, violence, and people acting deplorably.  And just because someone shares a nationality, Northern European ancestry and allegedly a religion with me, does not make me responsible for his actions (any more, than say, one of my Muslim students is responsible for ISIL terrorism).  But somehow some expect an Imam to call out every gunman, and the Black Lives Matter organizers to make statements that it is not okay to shoot a cop. If so, then I, a white, Christian, native-born American (as with most of my readers) must publicly and loudly proclaim that it is not okay to drive a car into a group of people intending to murder them.  It is not okay to celebrate slavery (nor is it a slight to your ancestors to suggest that neither they, nor the society they created, was perfect).  It is not Christian, American, or "okay" to proclaim that hate is the way forward to a supreme white society.

I don't have good words for this.
I don't think that is a bad thing.

Here are some other words from fellow, white, Christian, native-born Americans who could not stay silent as they preached this morning: This is a link to a recording of the sermon at our church this morning, "Christian, Get Out of the Boat" and the transcript of the sermon from a former pastor of our church, "It's Time to Break-Up"

Don't be okay with racism.  It is not okay.  Okay?

*Except it doesn't yet look great because we are still rearranging as we return the cabinet doors.