It’s time,” says Hobson, “for us to be comfortable with the uncomfortable conversation about race. If we truly believe in equal rights and equal opportunity in America, we need to have real conversations about this issue. We can’t be color blind, we have to be color brave.” Why should we be color brave, raising the question instead of ducking it? “Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s the smart thing to do.” Her favorite example of color bravery is John Skipper, who runs ESPN. She says ESPN always had a diverse culture, but he took it up a notch — he demanded that every open position have a diverse slate of applicants. The senior staff would come to him and ask, “Do you want to have me hire the minority or the best person for the job?” To which he would reply, “Yes.
Parents do not make childhood magical. Abuse and gross neglect can mar it, of course, but for the average child, the magic is something inherent to the age. Seeing the world through innocent eyes is magical. Experiencing winter and playing in the snow as a 5-year-old is magical. Getting lost in your toys on the floor of your family room is magical. Collecting rocks and keeping them in your pockets is magical. Walking with a branch is magical. It is not our responsibility to manufacture contrived memories on a daily basis.
That along with his tantrums, destructive behaviors, lying, and stealing….it was very frustrating. I knew that it was all very typical of former and current foster children. But, I also knew that it was making me crazy. I got mad a lot. I got sad a lot. I yelled a lot. I sent him to bed early a lot. I wish that someone had told me that it was ok that I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. Or that it wasn’t horrible that I had an easier time bonding with Antwan who was just a baby. Because, adding the guilt to all of it made it that much harder.
The Lion King Australia cast sings on a plane
During my meetings last week with the UN Foundation, the issues of global vs. local vaccination were described as “apples and oranges” on the basis of choice itself. Here in the U.S., we have one, where as mothers in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria will often walk for hours with exhausted children for a chance at receiving the thirteen cent vaccine because their children will quite literally die without it. As a southern Californian with many around me who have maintained a strong stand against vaccination, I wanted to accept that answer, because socially it was a more comfortable choice. But as formerly “eradicated” diseases make their reappearances in this country, I can’t help but ignore the fact that we’re a global community: Diseases that exist anywhere, exist everywhere, and the responsibility to squash them falls to each and every one of us. We don’t have the luxury of choice. Not until all of these diseases are gone.
