America, take a knee for those who are being treated as less-than in the eyes of our present system, including:
- People of color
- Those experiencing homelessness
- People who are denied healthcare
- Those battling substance use disorder
- People in need of mental health services
- Citizens in Puerto Rico
- Residents of Flint
- The LGBTQ Community
America, we are being driven to our knees by the special interests and lobbies of those who will make millions:
- Keeping our prisons full
- Keeping our insurance rates sky-high while denying basic coverage
- Keeping addictive American-manufactured poison flowing to our streets
- Keeping us at war
- Keeping us divided
America, we should bow our heads and ask ourselves:
- Why groups of white men can march through the streets of Charlottesville armed to the teeth and spewing hate, but a single man of color who tells a police officer he is legally armed is shot dead in front of his family during a traffic stop.
- Why anyone has a right to judge who we love or who we marry.
- Why this land where people came so they could be free to practice their religion has become so intolerant.
- Why so many in this country once referred to as a great melting pot no longer embrace that ideal.
- Why the Bible is being used to take away rights from citizens.
America, take a knee and remember:
- Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Martin Luther King Jr
- When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Maya Angelou
- History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Also Maya Angelou
- No more hurting people. PEACE. Martin Richard
- Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another. Nelson Mandela
- Dear sisters and brothers, we realize the importance of light when we see darkness. We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced. Malala Yousafzai
- Study the past if you would define the future. Confucious
- It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt
- Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. JFK
- We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence
America, take a knee, bow your head, and think about what has happened to us. If we are still the ideals we have for so long represented, if we still believe in the dream instilled in our hearts that so many have died defending, then we must:
- Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight. Bob Marley
Heroin. Stop the Silence. Speak the Truth. 