A nation in mourning
Dear Lord,
I am speechless.
I want to claim ignorance, to distance myself from the white, religious perpetrators of this, to say I am not like this and this is not me.
Yet as I see so many of your children distancing themselves I wonder, who is left to stand?
We distanced ourselves so much we made the children disappear.
We.
Not them.
Me.
So I am trying to stand – shaky and uncertain.
Stand by those graves and weep, and say I am so, so, sorry over and over again.
Place a marker over each one, calling them by name, not numbers, saying you matter and never again and I will not forget.
Those graves were hidden because everyone had distanced themselves, because nobody was willing to see.
I will try to stand close. I will open my eyes to see. And I will say: I am so, so, sorry.