Black lives Matter!
*If not, do any lives matter?
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King.
Thus, Black lives-and all lives-matter!
The recent police murders in Minneapolis, Louisville, New York City, and other places in the USA, of Black Americans give us urgent cause to demand immediate change. The killings are repugnant- a blot on our national character. We cannot be bystanders.
To see the lynching of George Floyd by police sworn to protect and defend all of us, as the overwhelming number of honorable police officers do, is to know that it is long past time for dramatic change.
I came of age as child of state violence. My parents were subjugated under barbaric British colonial rule in India until 1948. No country can ever own a group of people who want freedom and no race is superior to any other!
I feel personally responsible for today’s inequality. I can only imagine what it is to be a Black person in today’s USA and to have to explain racism to one’s children. Action is required.
The United States of America, this “City on a Hill,” as President Ronald Wilson Reagan called it, was created to be a beacon to all people – not just white people- in the world who wanted democracy, liberty, freedom and happiness.
Our national creators were men of uncommon intellectual brilliance, courage and experience for their time: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and many more. Still, they were all men and all white. They were imperfect.
The USA started with four original, indelible sins: slavery; the cruel, totally unnecessary treatment of Native Americans and all people of color; the immoral, shameful denial of the rights of women until 1920 and, the unacceptable idea of white supremacy.
To say, as we admit the historic truth of the four original sins of the United States, that our country was partially built on racist ideology is just a starting point.
In 1948, former President, Harry S. Truman, integrated our Armed Forces via Executive Order. Today, the integrated Armed Forces show what can be done. Why are we waiting to do more?
The founding fathers, left those of us alive today to atone for and repair the injustices that they created. How else might we create the “more perfect union,” of which President Abraham Lincoln spoke so eloquently?
Black Lives Matter! All lives Matter! Saving one life is akin to saving the world and that each of us, in our own way, is here to fix the world.
John Donne said: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls? It tolls for thee.”
When one of us is unfairly diminished, we are all hurt, If Black lives are now in danger, who is next? John Donne rightly asked this important question.
For good to prevail, people of decency must speak out. In this case, we need equality, not only in justice but in opportunity for our Black brothers and sisters- and for all!
Black Lives Matter!
With Love,
Yashu Singh DDS Owner and Orthodontist
Sing Orthodontics, PC
