Actually she's been to three and actually spoke at one. It wasn't me who suggested she go, this was all her idea. She said, "Dad, I have to go." And that was it.
She lives in California and we all know about the pandemic and how that state has been in the crosshairs and that was a major concern for her father. But George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were at the front of her mind and in her heart so she went.
When I was much younger there were riots and cities burning and people looting. Think Detroit 1968. So what's been going on and what is going on is something I've seen. But. Millennials have never seen this before. To see them demonstrate, most of them peacefully, has been something.
I'm not the first to say this but next time you see a protest on television look in the crowd. The rainbow of colors is astounding. Black, white, brown, yellow, red. Astounding.
Let me tell you a story. I'll bet every black man got the lecture from their father, I did. About how to act around police. I can remember mine. If stopped while driving keep your hands on the wheel, smile, and no sudden movements. I'll also bet if you're white you never got that talk.
Like I've been fond of saying, "I've been black a long time." The rules have always been different for me. Oh, they've gotten better as I've gotten older but the rules are still different.
Maya.
The pride that a father feels toward his child is something that is difficult to explain to someone who doesn't have kids. Your children make you see things differently, make you think differently. Maya has friends of all kinds of colors, she listens to music by people of all kinds of colors. Her heroes are all different colors.
My Dad has always said you love your kids but liking them is a bit different. I love Maya. I like Maya.
So she went to the protest with her mask on, hand sanitizer at the ready, making sure to practice social distancing. She said she was at the front of the crowd to help avoid getting you know what.
You know what's funny? Every time a news program shows a protest in the L.A. area I stop and look at it to see if I can see my daughter.
Powerful stuff.
One last thing, Maya is a big sister. To show her younger brothers that this is important to her is just...
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