Our Justice Leagues

It's been a hot minute since I've blogged. This one may step on some toes, y'all. It may cost me some Facebook friends. What I have known for sure since I was 7 years old is that when something is beyond hard, I write. I write. And I write.

Musical Bridges

After Liam's Tomatis Therapy ended today in Seattle I still had the memorial service for George Floyd playing on my phone, as I plugged it in to re-start his latest werewolf audiobook in the car.

"What's that music?" Liam asked

It was the organ of ABC broadcasting on YouTube during the 8:46 of silence for George Floyd's Memorial service. I'd been watching it while he was in doing his therapy. I swallowed hard. Here was our sliding door moment.

"A very important man was killed." I said. Then tears pricked my eyes. A lump formed in my throat. I couldn't say more....I swallowed again, struggling.

"Oh. Who was he?" Liam inquired, all innocence and curiosity.

I started to say his name and choked back tears. I took a deep breath. Another. Then another. Then I surfaced.

"His name is George Floyd. He's very important. You will hear about him for the rest of your life. He made a big difference. Just like you will." Just like that, we were off and running.

So, I didn't say "just like you will" to be glib or disrespectful; in Autism and Tourette's Syndrome and the accompanying co-occurring disorders, connection is paramount. Empathy is hard to build.




It is so hard to frame a conversation of this magnitude for a child with multiple disabilities. God knows I gave it my best effort. I honestly felt this was a Divine Moment.

So, I shared what happened to George Floyd. Clear, simple facts. Who George was, who loved him and why this went wrong.

Who WE Are & WHY We are HERE

I reminded Liam that in our family we LOVE everyone. We value what's fair. Liam is all about FAIR.

He has an overwrought sense of JUSTICE so this resonated with him immediately.  And sadly, he may"get it" more viscerally than most WASP adults EVER can. Because you see, Liam only too well remembers being held down for the crime of anxiety, elopement and having the "what if monster"eating him alive in the school setting.

So, here's the thing. I didn't start homeschooling for fluffy let's-bake-cookie reasons. I started homeschooling because my then-9 year old had PTSD from isolation, restraint and seclusion within the public school system. Practices more often experienced by black or disabled students--way out of proportion. Yes, we had some great teachers too--so in fairness, experienced as a result of well-intended educators unprepared for trauma informed education. PTSD is PTSD.

Y'all, systemic change starts HERE. It starts EARLY. We MUST challenge the systemic racism from LAO to EDUCATION to MENTAL HEALTH to health disparity and on and on AND ON. We EACH have a POINT of ENTRY. Yes, so, ON TOP of existing challenges and disabilities. I became a home school mom to SAVE our son. And I'm pondering what NEXT?! How can our stories intertwine to impact systemic change?!

BUT FIRST...let me PAUSE. LET ME HEAR. LET ME LISTEN. LET ME UNDERSTAND IN WAYS I NEVER HAVE BEFORE!

Guardians of the Galaxy

Back to TODAY. In the end of our 12 minute conversation, Liam asked me if DJT is "coming for" him and his two best friends. I told him we have Guardians and that we have 152 days until change.

In all his wisdom and love of precision, Liam said "What percentage chance is there that this won't change?"

With my heart in my throat I said "Maybe thirty-three percent. So you have to go vote with mommy in a few months, no matter what, ok?" He agreed.

Liam is 10. With no disrespect, he relates perhaps as a 7 year old emotionally and egocentrically. He wants to know who the Guardians of the Galaxy are? So I told him how I see it: former President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, the late Maya Angelou, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Bono, Sherrod Brown, our own Gov. Jay Inslee and now....George Floyd. AND ALL OF US!

We talked of the ripples we put into the world. Liam believes in his own "animal ripples." And within my own heart today, there started a renewed fire for self-examination, connection and openness. MORE RIPPLES!

I know....we look like uptight, Scotch-Irish from the Deep South where I was raised. So, today was NOT the day to tell Liam about the marginalization of poverty my dad experienced as a sharecropper's son in Alabama. It was NOT the day to tell him how my soul felt at home when I taught in Uganda and Nigeria. It NOT the day to talk about the difference between our experience of immersion in black culture and what what our Ancestry.Com results actually revealed.

Tonight. It's tonight that I pray. I pray in Liam's lifetime we get to act upon CHANGING what we have learned from 401 years of oppressing people of color--our African American brothers & Sisters and black communities.

Tonight. I pray we LISTEN, LEARN & SHARE the overlapping stories of the marginalized to spark a better tomorrow for our babies. I pray we all are Guardians of the Galaxy!

STOP RACISM. BLACK LIVES MATTER. IT'S TIME TO BREATHE!