Dear Gibson,
Last weekend, we sent your pacifiers to a new baby. At least, that’s what we told you when we put all of the pacis in a giant ziplock bag and put them in the mailbox. Later, I went and put them in the trash. We don’t like lying to you and we seldom do it, even about little things. But we needed a story. You needed a story. “I’m too big for pacis now” is probably just a little too heartbreaking. For you and for me. Now you tell everyone and tell us daily, “I gave my pacis to new baby.”
While you have the monumental struggles of moving from baby to big boy, our country and this world are having monumental struggles of their own. On the world scale, we have civil war, death, destruction, terrorism, and genocide. You know, little stuff.
In our country, we have all just awoken to what many have know forever…some cops are racist, and that means people die when they shouldn’t. Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, Baton Rouge, North Charleston, Roseville. All deaths of blacks at hands of white cops. And it used to be that there were no video cameras. Now everyone has one in their pocket.
Aunt Heather talks about inherent bias. She is right. People have it and many aren’t even aware of it. For some, the inherent bias many carry around has lethal consequences. Maybe it’s possible you don’t have inherent biases when you are my age. One can hope. I have them. I actively work to eliminate them and to eliminate their impact on my thinking and my decision making.
But it’s getting better. It’s always been this way, it’s just now folks are talking about it. I hope the world continues to get better for you.
Love,
Dad