Death at the hands of those in power.
Desensitization.
Pounding our fist and joining the march.
Standing still.
Remaining quiet.
Calling for change but unwilling to transform from within.
Death at the hands of the powerful, the educated, and those with voices.On March 13, Breonna Taylor was shot by police when sleeping in her home because of a botched no-knock raid executed on her home by police, where no drugs were found, and the named suspect lived elsewhere and had already been detained by police.  At the end of April, Ahmaud Arbery was shot while running in south Georgia because his caucasian neighbors thought he was a burglar. A few short days later, a caucasian woman called police with a false claim that bird watcher Christian Cooper was attacking her when in reality she was the one who was breaking the law letting her dog run freely in Central Park. At the end of May George Floyd was pushed to the ground and held to the ground with such force that he cried out in fear for his life, pleading to be let go because he couldn’t breathe. Two out of the lost their lives and one experienced a death of another kind: the death of truth and trust.We have raised our hands and pumped our fist. We stood outraged at the actions of those in authority. We joined in the protest coming alongside those who are on the fringes of society.  We have had a few conversations about the events but in reality, we have returned to our lives of privilege.  We are calling for change but are we ready to do the hard work of admitting our own biases, our own failures, and the support of systemic racism?Jesus tells this story of someone who has been brutalized and left on the side of the road.  Several people pass but they are too busy, too concerned with their reputations, too tired from walking their own lonely, hard road to have to pick up someone else. I think that every single one of them wanted to do something for the person who had been beaten so badly that they were fighting for their life but they honestly just didn’t want to address the ways they had beaten someone else down with words, deeds, actions and left them to lick their own wounds because it was easier than to stand with them and do the hard work.Let us stop passing our brothers and sisters along the side of the road.  Let us stop calling for change, for systems to be torn down without being willing to change ourselves.  Let us not allow death to continue to occur at the hands of us who are resource-rich, who hold power merely because of the color of our skin, whose voices can be heard in places where our brothers and sisters are silenced.  We must not merely pump our fist or shout to the mountain tops, we must stop where are and tend to our brothers and sisters who are longing to be seen, heard, and acknowledged.We invite you to begin the work of self-transformation and change in two formats.

Join us on Thursdays, July 16th,23rd, 30th and August 6th from 6:30-7:15pm as Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Williams from Clark Memorial UMC facilitates us into a deeper conversation in who we are and how we can walk alongside our brothers and sisters.  You can join us in our Blakemore Zoom linkParticipate in the 21-day challenge in which we will focus on Racial and Equity and Social Justice through a series of podcasts, emails, and or videos developed by the YWCA.  You can join the challenge through this link:  https://www.ywcanashville.com/events/21-day-racial-equity-social-justice-challenge/

In Love and Faith,

Rev. Amanda Diamond