For Your Consideration

Several years back, a white woman took me aside and explained to me the why of #BlackLivesMatter. It’s my hope to reach out to my regular readers, as well as to anyone else who cringes when hearing the reply of “all lives matter,” but isn’t sure why.

Simply put, let’s take #BlackLivesMatter and apply it to something else in life. Please note that this isn’t a metaphor that I created, but the one that made things crystal-clear to me. It’s from a comic-strip on chainsawsuit.com by Kris Straub back in 2014. Here’s a link to his 2016 update to his original comic.

Let’s say that one night you wake up and your house is filled with smoke. You and your family safely get out of your burning house, but no one has their cell phones with them. You go to your neighbors and wake them up to ask for them to help and call the fire department. Your house is on fire!

Every neighbor you ask responds, “all houses matter” and then shuts their doors.

Maybe your next-door neighbor does call the fire department out of concern that their own house may catch fire. And when the firefighters show up, they do nothing. Maybe even a few “bad apple” firefighters pour gasoline on your house.

Who do you turn to for help? How can you get the attention of others so that they may help save your home? How can you try and make it so that firefighters will do their job and not be part of the problem? You don’t disagree that “all houses matter,” but right now a house is on fire and needs help!!!

I hope that this helps you embrace the #BLM movement, and become a supporter in any way that you can. There is a three-alarm blaze here in America that has been burning for a long time – killing countless citizens. We need to do all that we can to save and protect those who are being burned.