“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – MLK

Where do I begin? In the words of Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On?”, is all I can come up with. Today is the day we commemorate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He stood for Nonviolence, Unity, Equality, and Love. Dr. King was all about Change and it came with some Controversy. Change is NEVER easy, for anyone. However, in the last few weeks, in fact, last few years, many of the tenets on change, and how we should deal with it, that Dr. King taught, have not been demonstrated by our national leadership. And this lack of character in times of change, has unfortunately, trickled down to the masses, leaving many of them feeling, somehow disenfranchised and dissolusioned about their privilege and place in society. I’m sorry you feel this way. But people who look like me have been disenfranchised for the entirety of our presence in this place we call America, by people who look like you. The difference: Dr. King, John Lewis, and others, practiced peaceful and nonviolent protest, even in the wake of violence against them, from others. They got in, what John Lewis called, “Good Trouble”, because equality, is a right, we all should advocate for and this is the concept that the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have continued to keep alive in order to make change in our law enforcement system. This is how Stacey Abrams made change in Voting Rights and elections in the state of Georgia. Nonviolence. Peace. Social Justice. Simple. What many of you showed us by storming the Capitol Building, was how intolerant you are of change and it scares me how much some of you want things to remain the same, frozen in time. That’s not how change works. And until you see America as a place that belongs to all of us, everyone who lives here, even those that don’t look like you, change will continue to be a burden to you instead of being seen as something to make both our lives better. That’s a battle you will have to deal with on your own. Until you figure it out, we’ll continue to work on making Dr. King’s dream come true because we still have a ways to go, with or without you. #MLKDay #LoveThyNeighbor #ChangeIsGood #LoveNotHate