Today, the entire country is in mourning for the deaths of the five Dallas police officers who were killed last night in retaliation for the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille. Violence clearly only leads to more violence, and we need much less hatred, much less killing, and more love, more understanding.
Earlier today, Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry sent out this tweet which speaks to anyone who is a parent:
What will my brown son's future be? What will your brown son's future be? I beg you to act NOW. Let us be heard. pic.twitter.com/1aEQ52GkPC
— Halle Berry (@halleberry) July 8, 2016
Later, on Instagram, Berry elaborated on her thoughts:
“What will my brown son’s future be? What will your brown son’s future be? The uncertainty is real. I beg you not to be a bystander in this life, but to go out and find ways to make peaceful change. Our boys need us so rather than launching into deep sentiment here on this platform, I promise to find ways to get involved and help. Please do the same. You can start by reaching out to your local politicians, legislators & government officials NOW. Let us be heard. God bless all the victims and families of these senseless CRIMES.”
Are we finally ready to answer the difficult questions of race and discrimination which still exist in this country? Or will we seek to place blame and escalate the hatred and violence that has already killed far too many innocent people? Until we are really serious about answering the questions Halle Berry asks, more people will die and we will be right back at square one, no wiser than before.
Let’s all dedicate ourselves to love, to caring, to treating each other as if we depend on one another for our very survival. Because we do. We do, and we always will.
Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License
