Everyone is talking about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance. It was nuanced, multi-layered, and a clear call to action:
There is so much pressure to go along with what you know is wrong. Do what’s right anyway.
There is pressure to stay quiet about the attacks on the most vulnerable among us.
Speak up anyway.
There is pressure to go along with the dissolution of DEI programs at your job.
Make noise anyway.
There is pressure to ignore the multiple genocides happening around the world.
Yell about them anyway.
There is pressure to turn away as our neighbors are persecuted.
Help them anyway.
The dancer and protestor who displayed the flags of Sudan and Palestine during the performance said afterwards that he was inspired by these words of the Quran:
“Whoever among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot do so, then with his tongue. If he cannot do so, then with his heart, which is the weakest level of faith.”
I think I’ve told you I’m not much for organized religion, but I am inspired and I hope you can be too. With our hands, let us offer mutual aid, cook for the hungry, tend to the sick, take in the homeless, make hats and blankets for the cold, distribute literature, show up at protests, accompany people to court. With our tongues, let us speak up at work, in our faith communities, at the library, at school board meetings, at town halls, online, at the dinner table, at coffee with our friends. With our hearts, let’s learn everything we can about how we got here, and how we can keep each other safe.
I don’t pretend to rely on famous artists to tell me how to engage in the world, but each of us brings what we have to the building of a better world. What will you bring?
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