Love (please)!
- On May 20, 2018
Sadly, school shootings continue to occur no matter how often citizens call for sensible gun laws. And our government leaders led by the most incompetent person in the history of the U.S. presidency, is an “enabler of what’s wrong instead of what’s right”, which allows men of color wearing hoodies, and/or “armed” with cell phones to be murdered without provocation.
Understanding this awful state of affairs, but not accepting it, I was relieved to see love on full display at the May 19, 2018 royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (now the HRH Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and HRH Meghan, Duchess of Sussex). They showed us that love can transcend race, and that a woman, who is considered African-American in the U.S. and mixed-race in Britain, can ascend to British royalty.
Love is the great equalizer that definitely filled the air at Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Chapel when 19-year-old British cello virtuoso, who happens to be Black, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, played Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” Gabriel Faure’s “Apres un Reve” and Maria Theresia von Paradis’ “Sicilienne.” Whether or not this was a motivating factor in HRH Prince Harry’s and HRH Meghan’s decision to ask him to perform, Sheku showed millions of people around the world a positive representation of young Black men and what they can be if allowed to live. (Check out the segment about him and his family on CBS Sunday Morning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cleLWTBCBFQ).
And during his sermon at the wedding, Bishop Michael Curry, the first African-American to serve as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said with his own pastoral flair, “When love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we’re family.” I am hanging on to that thought, and desperately hope his words touched enough people to make this a reality someday.
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