Walking into my favorite coffee spot the other day, the hostess Josseline looked tired.
"How are you today, Josseline," I asked?
She smiled, "No one ever asks how I'm doing. Thank you."
Lift them up.
Some girls were out in front of the grocery store the other day selling Girl Scout cookies.
They had their learned lines down asking each person as they went by to please purchase their cookies.
Many did.
An old woman walked by.
They asked her if she would buy some of their delicious cookies.
She said she liked to, but she didn't have extra money.
One of the girls handed her a box for free.
Lift them up.
This coming Saturday, March 24th, from 10 AM to 2 PM starting at Pershing Square, 582 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, CA,
March For Our Lives is holding a rally and a march.
Everyone is welcome, not just students and teachers affected by the rule of the gun in our land.
Wait!
Listen...?
Did you hear that…?
Do you hear it?
People, a nation, a time when voices filled with fear call out collectively for justice.
A sound heard through the long halls history foretells of a building wave.
A wave built upon the broken and shattered lives cut short by the tyranny of a few men over the many.
Lift them up.
Why can't some people hear other people crying?
Why can't some people see the suffering people not like them
Why do some people turn their backs when they can help stop injustice?
Fear of change clouds the eye.
Fear of change darkens the heart.
Fear of change binds the hands.
Fear of the stranger resists compassion.
Lift them up.
You can read the writing on the wall.
You can see the summer change to fall and then to winter.
You can see the tide roll in and out.
You can witness the sunrise in the East and set in the West.
But can you see the despair in others, not like yourself?
Can you feel what it is like to live in fear of death?
Can we as a people ask everyone to be responsible?
Everyone.
Is that too much to ask for?
Is that a bridge too far?
A shore too distant?
Are we collectively going to fall into a trap set by profiteers of death?
The profiteers who stoke the fears of the unknown.
Who whisper horrible intent of races not your own.
Who raised up Jesus yet tell us that even the man of peace would have a conceal-carry under his robe.
That if everyone carried a gun, we would all be safe?
I tell you that's a lie.
It is a lie made by dark-hearted men to make a profit out of the fearful.
To tell you the truth…
I can tell you there will never be a time in your whole life that you will you ever be safe.
Never.
That is the reality.
The story that many believe is if you live a good life, worship the right god, live in the right neighborhood, drive the right car, marry the right person, go to the right school, get the good job, mind your own business, mow your lawn, keep your house painted, donate to charity, care for your family, that somehow through all these things you will be kept safe by an invisible spirit.
You will not be given anything you cannot bear…
That's a story.
It is not reality.
There are some storms we cannot bear…
Bad things happen to everyone.
You can't stop it.
But you can with compassion do the thing that we all can recognize is the right thing to do.
You can reach out and take a hand that reaches for help.
You can reach out and hold that person who is afraid.
You can lift them up.
Stand with us on March 24th everywhere in our nation.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Most of all, for life.
Peace
DFrey
