Perfectly Normal.....Normally Perfect....

What a beautiful day in Port Washington....blue sky, sun is up, Lake Michigan is sparkling. Fenway and I were out early so spotted just a few other dogs with their owners, two men on bikes raced up the hill to the bluff, robins and cardinals, mourning doves calling to one another from one side of the bike path to the other. Our lilac bushes near the lake are just beginning to open and all of the trees are greening...maybe not quite full leaf, but almost. And it's cool enough for a jacket....my kind of perfect morning. Port Washington looked completely normal this morning.

But America is burning. Neighborhoods in cities all across our country are filled with protestors and full of anger and frustration and fear. Dave and I got into bed last night and suddenly, at ten o'clock, both of our phones blasted a loud siren and a message came across our screens....there was a curfew in Milwaukee and because our cell phones have a 414 area code we got the warning. It was a sad and unsettling way to turn out the lights in our comfortable condo and try to go to sleep.

America is burning....and for many of the people involved in the protests and demanding answers to our latest examples of racism at work.....this America is perfectly normal. Some will say that much of the destruction is due to "outside agitators" and ignore the slow burn developing due to years and years and years filled with inequities and injustice.

I look in the mirror and see a white face looking back at me. I will never know.....never. My skin color gives me an automatic step up.....or more than one. My world is perfectly normal....normally almost perfect....and I will never know.