I want to feel hope

I don’t know where to find it

Memory flares

Mother/teacher -police office to mostly brown children asked them what was different about his job – he answered himself – he told  them he could kill them

Children learning that police are there to kill

I’m sure he said more but that was what mum remembered

White woman, mostly safe, but still remembering death as message

Sister white still afraid

Protests in New Mexico where police tell children they will kill

Tales of protest, say against Trump, different from people, than told on news

How do we give children hope?

I can’t find it myself

I try

I don’t know what to do

We hear again and again that the police are brave, they never know if they will come home at night

Truth spoken, truth ignored

Friends of color

Have that fear

They don’t know if they will come home again

Friends, one black, one white, husbands

Fear that one will die simply for the color of his skin

Fear lived with every day

No oath taken, no one paying for risk taken, no promise to protect and serve

Just black and living

Then not

That fear, living with it, then not

Where do we go?

How do we give value?

How do we prove value?

How do we change?

I want to give hope

I want to see change

All I see is death, all I see is fear, all I see is a double standard

White man with a gun lives

White men with guns hold weapons on federal officers not for a minute, not for seconds, but for days

They live, not disarmed

A man, hands up, no gun

Dead for assumptions, character assailed

Dead for the color of his skin

I want to offer hope

I feel fear

My nieces, female, color, what hope can I give

Love, change, world unchanged, world changed

Hope cannot fade

We are stronger together

A nation united

Color welcomed, color unnoted

Hope from hopelessness

We are better when we are e together

Strength united