by Michael LaPenna
I’ve been thinking through and living with so many emotions lately, and I just wanted to post something of love and support from the perspective of a guy that is both the majority and minority (as a white man and a person with cerebral palsy who grew up in multicultural neighborhoods and racially integrated lunch tables all the while still feeling like the most different one in the room) who believes that black lives matter and LGBTQ+ lives matter as well as any life who feels unheard and unseen.
Suspicion of a counterfeit $20 bill is not in any way a cogent and practical reason for George Floyd to have died. Being shot in her bed by police because they had the wrong house shouldn’t have killed Breonna Taylor. Jogging in a predominently white neighborhood shouldn’t be a reason why an otherwise healthy Ahmaud Arbery died. Someone else’s discomfort with a person’s gender identity or sexuality shouldn’t be a reason why 18 trans people have been murdered in 2020 alone. Rather, let’s treat people—not only better—but the very best we can treat them. Even if we disagree on issues, and even if we aren’t the very best of friends with every person we encounter. I believe we too often act like Samaritans minding our own business. Let’s instead leave a wider space inside our hearts for the common dignity we would give to strangers, loved ones—and all people endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and be good to one another because, in no uncertain terms, we cannot love one another and our neighbors as ourselves only when it’s convenient. Loving one another as ourselves, for me, means seeing our common humanity in each face and personality we encounter on a daily basis for better and for worse to heal our wounds and lift up our joys for the good of us all. Yes, all lives do matter, but when your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t scream, “What about my house?” and throw stones, you get help to put that fire out. It’s time to put the fire out in America with liberty and justice for all.
