We All Need An Anytown, USA

I’ve been thinking recently about the value of life. Being very candid, I was a little bit bothered by the current resurgence of the BlackLivesMatter movement. Candid again, I am a fairly privileged white male living in suburbia removed from many of the difficulties taking place in the world today. I’ve taken exception to posters and signs pointed at the “white” community stating “silence is violence”.

But, I am learning. I am growing.

Where I grew up, many people where white Caucasians like me. I don’t remember having any friends from different ethnic backgrounds though there were some in my high school. I grew up a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormon are commonly used nicknames) same as most of my friends.

I belonged to a peer leadership team at my high school. During one particular summer, I attended several workshops designed to help our sixteen and seventeen year old minds think in broader terms. The “hot” topics of the day were drugs, AIDS, the emerging LGBTQ+ community (“gays” as we called them back then), and the continued racial divide in the United States. I think we probably spent an hour or two on each topic. In my mind, that made me pretty well versed.

Then, something magical happened.