6.8.20 // Quiet, but not silent

This past week I've been quiet.
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Quiet, but not silent.
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Quiet, yet contemplative. Quiet, yet curious. Quiet, yet conversational.
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The past week I've welcomed thoughts and started dialogues, both the easy ones and the hard ones. But these aren't just one-off conversations, these are the conversations that need to keep happening regardless of short media cycles.
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Over the past week, I've seen the world shift. Both my little world in its physical landscape and the world at large, a world waking up to fundamentally broken systems.
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The drive West, (with masks, lots of hand sanitizer, and safe social distancing practices), was endless and the hot asphalt miles offered solace and space to listen and learn.
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Not just listen and learn, but space to get things wrong when I use my voice, to grow from those mistakes and owning the reaction when growth feels hard, to feel the pains from the events that have taken place on our city streets, to fear for others whose basic human rights are being denied, to fume about the injustice that has gone on for too long.
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The space to drive and reflect is a massive privilege, and I acknowledge that.
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I also acknowledge that the media cycle is viciously fast. But, even when the media dies down, I commit to continuing to have the hard conversations, to continue to question my privilege each day, to raise up the voices that need to be heard.
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And for those of you waiting for life to return to "normal"... "normal" never existed without oppression, violence gone unreported, and an entire people kept as second class citizens in a world claiming equality.