My friends and family are from many races and I love each one of them. The Black Lives Matter movement is important for my sons. Yes, I agree that all lives matter. In the current state of our country all lives are not devalued, only black lives. Growing up my mom taught my brother and I how to deal with police. Does this same lesson happen in every household? We were told to sit up straight, don’t raise your voice, don’t ask too many questions , if you are being mistreated we can deal with it in court. This lesson is taught in almost every home of color to hope that our children come home at night. Now as a mother I have to teach my sons the same. The last eight years, there have been too many shootings of African American men by police. Technology has made things that have always happened, more visual. At the same time the number has increased.

Yes, our community is upset that our men are being murdered. However, our biggest issue doesn’t lie in whether they are guilty or not, it is how people with skin of color are treated during stops. Why aren’t they being arrested? In many of these situations police weren’t in any altercation. The recent bombing suspects in NY/NJ area had an actual shoot out with the police and were arrested alive. Why are black men being killed instead of arrested? There wasn’t any ‘imminent danger’ in most of these situations, although claimed.

It’s not only enraging, it’s sad and scary, we have no where to run, no where to hide. So yes protest needs to happen, Peaceful protest. Voting needs to happen. People we must vote! Yes I agree there is way more to the political game than voting, however, it is the first step. If we don’t take that first step, we don’t have any other steps to take. In Election 2008 we showed our strength. Let’s show it again! Vote out all who are not about change!

Protesters stay peaceful don’t let the few in the crowd cloud the message. Don’t let anyone change the protest from peaceful to violent. The message must be clear!

For our brothers in blue, be the one that speaks up, change the atmosphere in the police departments. Apparently in the police departments and in quite a number of American households, black people are guilty just because of the color of our skin. In addition, jail is not a harsh enough sentence. Is this the behavior your condoning?

To all people we must come together and unite for peace in our country.