The morning after. The grand jury decision wasn’t just a nightmare I can shake away.  Michael Brown has not woken up. Justice is an empty word.

The temptation, for those of us who are white and have that choice, is to go back to sleep. To dream ourselves back into a reality we’ve been taught. Everything is fine. The system works. Because we want it to be so. Because our hearts have been hardened to protect a worldview that is racist.

Closed hearts sustain a hell on earth. Allow it to keep burning. We look another way. We make another excuse.

I choose to keep my heart open. To stay with the pain and not the excuses. To resist the endless lamenting that we white people often choose. To discern my part in moving forward the revolution that has started.

A revolution that says, “Enough; we are done with this hell.”

 “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Heart image from: http://www.nancybrophy.com/hellontheheart.html