A call to action

When I was a young girl, I used to hold myself back from speaking my truth. I come from a Jamaican household where children were to be seen and not heard. Sure, I could express myself as a child but when it came to “grown folks business”, I had to recuse myself or else. Here’s the trouble with stifling your voice at early age- it can become a force of habit into adulthood. As I got older, I challenged myself to speak up and to become a force for greater humanity. I even believed that if I earned my doctoral degree maybe then, I would have the platform and courage to speak my mind. The funny thing is, you can have the platform and never mount it out of fear of criticism, failure, or rejection.

I’m showing up today.

It seems like everytime we check our phones, we are bombarded with a never-ending stream of negative information and bad news. At times, it can be difficult to make sense of all of this information. Still, some can feel the rumbles of change upon us yet most of us seem to be paralyzed by fear.

Of note, we have been living through a pandemic as well as ongoing war and conflicts of trade, land, resources, race, class, reproductive rights, climate change, and healthcare to name only a few. There is a real level of exhaustion that can overtake the psyche when you consider the weight of it all.

I ask myself, who is responsible? I, like most people, would like to point my fingers at the world leaders. Still, I refrain with the understanding that if I relinquish my power to some outside authority, I then render myself powerless to be an agent of change and reform.

The past several months, I have been silent yet thoughtful.

In my reflection,what has hurt me the most has been the silence of those who champion themselves as allies and the apathy from those who consider themselves advocates and agitators. I am guilty of being silent but the longer I fail to use my voice as an instrument to defend in the face of injustice and violence, the more that I implicate myself as an accessory to crimes against humanity.

It is time to pick a side and stand firmly planted on your position.

This is not a time to be tepid, lukewarm, or straddle the fence.

I don’t know who needs to hear this but, silence is a form of violence at a time when those who are oppressed have lost their voice or will to fight. Those among us who still have strength and power to do the work are charged to take a stand against injustice in high and low places.

Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has”.

In the past decade alone, I have had the immense honor and pleasure to know several cohorts of gifted scholars and citizens whose ideas, opinions, and thoughtfulness alone has the potential to set the world ablaze.

There has never been a better time to use your mind, heart, and skills for the betterment of humanity and I charge you to do so in whatever way you can conceive. Resist the urge to take a sabbatical when most would rather shut out and shut down. Be brave and take a stand and be the leaders that I know you to be.

For years, we have been asking- what will America do for us? Through this line of inquiry, we have remained stagnant and have grown restless and resentful. It is time to change the narrative and instead, ask ourselves what we can do to serve America and more globally, the world.

Change is upon us and we must be brave and unfaltering in times of great turmoil and uncertainty. America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. So I ask, my friends, who among us is brave enough to dedicate their gifts, skills, and talents to defend and pave from dusk to dawn into the future that awaits us?

“Pull up”.