Stop Killing Us, Please

When I was a child…

When I was a child in elementary school, we made shadow portraits of President Lincoln and President Washington and hung them up to decorate the walls outside of everyone’s classroom. We were so proud of ourselves. Now… children hear adults bashing each other and being hostile to the school administration and teachers. When my kids were in elementary school there was an election one year and a Republican was running for mayor and a Democrat was running for sheriff, supporting each other. When you requested campaign signs for your front lawns, you received one of each. Can you imagine today, a Republican sign and a Democrat sign next to each other. Can you imagine going to the polls and voting for the best person and not all blue or all red?

When I was a child, we went to the police station once a year for a tour and learned the police were our friends. Now, even the good police officers stir fear in people. We are afraid for ourselves and for others. We are a lost society looking for a beacon of light we held in our childhoods. Rod Serling aired a Twilight Zone episode in 1964, I Am the Night – Color Me Black: “A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ – but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don’t look for it in the Twilight Zone – look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.”

The last two days of February, Peace in Action is giving recognition to Mamie Till-Mobley and RowVaughn Wells. Grieving mothers, seventy years apart.