My son called to ask--Didn't I want to come on campus tonight to show support? There's a rally on the steps of the administration building. I was tired, after the routines of our Friday lessons and those poor behavior choices. But the cause was a noble one. He had invited me and his siblings. It was a cause I would have drawn to his attention in his growing up years and now here he was, putting that awareness into action.
I met my daughter and we hurried through the cold night air, turned the corner of the old brick building and joined the gathered crowd. Articulate young people representing campus groups spoke, poems were read, candles lit, pledges made.
Question haunt my mind as I shiver in the bitter night air. Why are we still doing this in 2010? Why another gathering to protest an act of racism? Didn't we have enough of these back in the days when I was a student on campus?
Why did two young men consider, then carry out said act that ended in their arrest today? Why, in the cover of darkness, did they spread cotton on the lawn of an iconic black student building? How do we fight this thing called racism?
The answers came in the words spoken by the young people at the mic tonight. Take action to require diversity classes for all students. Engage with others who do not believe, dress, act, entertain like you. Prayer for guidance and love to rein down and prevail. A call to end racism.
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