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0816 AUGUST
12 / 96
color of
love
as days grow shorter and summer com
es to a close, now is the time that our community
naturally comes together after vaca- tions, camps, or catching up on some overdue work. our chil- dren are going back to school, the weather is cooling down, and both hurricane and football seasons are approaching. at a time where we should be coming together, our streets have been filled with local and national media covering acts of vio- lence and protest in our community. while i can never fully understand what it means to live as an african american or to enforce laws as a peace officer, i can imagine the universal grief felt by any parent who loses a child. i understand the fear of waking up in a world where my child no longer lives and am equally devastated when i learn someone in our community must experience such grief. do black lives matter? do blue lives matter? i have always tried to teach my children to respect the value and uniqueness of life all around them. when they laughed at me for re-planting our neighbor?s discarded daylilies, i explained to my kids that they were alive and will be just as pretty as the flowers in the store one day soon. i was proud of my daughter when she asked me to pull over to help a dying squirrel on our way to school. we stopped traffic to remove its tiny body from the road. when asked these questions, i can?t help but think, ?yes! don?t we all love our children?? most people know that love is patient and kind, but i tell my kids that it also doesn?t care about occupa- tion, status, or color. after the recent tragedies and deaths across our city, many of us are left wondering how to heal what appears to be a broken community. how are we able to realistically transform con- versations about unity into feelings of support in the every- day minds of our neighbors? i believe it will involve listening to each other?s voices and accepting hard truths. if we know that it ?takes a village? to live in safe and equitable society, we must learn to move beyond acceptance and actually embrace all members of our village. we must realize that each of us com- prises and defines baton rouge. when our friends are hurting, it matters little whether they are black, white, or brown and equally as little as to whether they are police officers, teachers, or cashiers. ?e best thing we can do to unify our community is to stop viewing specific groups as enemies and consider each of them our friends. despite any differences, as parents we can bond together over the love we feel for our children and our desire to have them in our lives as long as possible. we can condemn unjust violence of any kind and build a new community where people experience joy, pain, hope, and fear equally because we recognize that we are all de- pendent on each other to ensure our success. as we say goodbye to another season, it?s my hope that we can welcome fall togeth- er with a loud voice ? as one village. stay connected enter to win free goodies and be the first to know what's going on around town at brparents.com the weekender receive the latest news and trends right in your inbox. subscribe at brparents.com facebook facebook.com/ batonrougeparents talk to me amy@brparents.com brpm app download our free app at google play or in the apple app store amy foreman-plaisance publisher/editor in chief in every issue / a m o t h e r ? s v o i c e 12 brparents.com | august 2016
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