Letters

One can struggle for years trying to be one’s best self, trying to fulfill an assignment not first enrolled or desired but taken on with a determination of integrity and excellence, with a heartfelt sincerity of unselfish gain.

Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, each in their own way, were determined to right a wrong. By any means necessary. But snuffed out and gone too soon. Could it be, perhaps, they got too close to the truth? Maybe they got too much attention getting into “good trouble.”

How can we turn a blind eye, not obviously seeing this pattern of successful dislike? How can we not clearly see the root of the shadow of evil still lurking among us? So bold and revealing that one can stand boldly with his hands in his pocket of protected authority, and nonchalantly with his knee on the neck of a father, a brother, a human being; posing eye to eye in the camera while his fellow “blue brothers” stand by in support of a live 21st century lynching. We should not want to drink the poison of evil but only desire to speak and receive the truth.

So why would this be a question or a division of conversation that All Lives Matter! We all know there is still good in this world. We all know that there is still real love for humanity. So we can no longer throw the sheet over racism and injustice that’s now soaked up and seeping in over 400 years of shed blood. Your mom and dad matters. Your children matter. Your auntie and cousins matter. It’s a no-brainer — of course we all matter. That’s the simple point.

So I say, let us all get in “good trouble” and fight the good fight of justice for all.

Langston Hughes shared a profound and relevant poem called “I Dream A World”:

I dream a world where man

No other man will scorn,

Where love will bless the earth

And peace its paths adorn

I dream a world where all

Will know sweet freedom’s way,

Where greed no longer saps the soul

Nor avarice blights our day.

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

Where wretchedness will hang its head

And joy, like a pearl,

Attends the needs of all mankind —

Of such I dream, my world!

Brenda Simmons

Executive Director

Southampton African American Museum

Southampton Village