Sometimes I’ll click articles linked on social media and not read them right away. Or I’ll see comments or quotes and move on, but think about them through the next several days.
One such quote was about the racial reconciliation topic. It said, “Before we talk about reconciliation, we need to talk about justice.”
I’ve been thinking about that. On a much, much smaller level, it’s the same in relationships. Two people are not going to be reconciled until there is at least an apology given. After forgiveness, restoration of the relationship can then happen.
But on this macro topic it is so complicated. What does justice look like for something as old as our nation itself? Since we cannot change the past, what does justice moving forward look like? I’m honestly asking. Since I don’t have any sort of call to action, it is difficult to articulate.
I will keep reading what I come across and search out, trying to keep an open mind about what justice would look like. In the meantime, I just read this article from the Washington Post about what it looks like to become an adult for those who don’t have supportive parents or whose parents might be in jail or who have to decide between getting away from drug use in an overcrowded living space or going to school. It put some details to stories I’ve watched over the past several years.
I don’t want this topic to be just an interesting side note in my comfortable life. It is affecting our nation. While it seems to have been brought to the surface with this presidential election, that is not the only reason to address it. When sitcoms and advertising and the publishing industry and Hollywood and news channels all have a particular (white, middle to upper class) bias, we have to make sure to put ourselves directly in the pathway of anyone not represented in that bias.
We can all only be the better for it.