Black Lives Matter

​I believe that #BlackLivesMatter. I've heard it said by white people that "All lives Matter." All lives cannot matter until Black one's do. That's true. 

To my fellow white people. The time has come to put up or shut up. The old days are gone. Racism & Bigotry are not a right. In my book, we can't agree to disagree in this one. We're past that. White privilege is real and disgraceful. The Good Ole' Boy network is crashing down before us like the Confederate Statues, that we never should have erected in the first place. It ends here it ends today.

My family raised my siblings and I to be like the Kennedy's, but there's a lot I have to learn and I won't say I'm perfect but I'm willing to learn and grow. I also know that members of the Black community are being killed and murdered by white police officers and it has to stop now. Officers need to be held to account for it. Now. Not tomorrow, not in a couple of years or a few weeks....Now. 

My parents rejected segregation and worked with local Black colleges like Bennett and NC A&T University and Saint Pius Catholic church to fight racism. As prominent business owners in Greensboro, they hired Black workers when no one else would. Despite this, my previous ancestors were not so inclined.

This next part I write with deep anger, regret and guilt at myself and my Irish ancestors. On my Grandmothers' side, my ancestors owned slaves. She was a First Family Virginian and swore that General Lee signed the surrender because they got him drunk. Looking back on it today, I realize that's not funny. The rape. murder, torture of human beings is deplorable, despicable and evil. My ancestors should have been put in jail or sent to death row for it. I'm ashamed to be associated with them. 

But now's the time to grow, to change, to love, to understand. #Blacklivesmatter. #Blacktranslivesmatter.

Síle