Do Unto Others …

 

 

You know the saying, “do unto others as you would have them (or like them) to do unto you.” It catches my attention when “themes show up” for me.

I have always been a big Starbucks and Howard Schultz fan and for about a decade now he has wanted to be a place for the country to have a deeper conversation about race. In 2015 Schultz initiated a “Race Together” campaign by printing “Race Together” on the cups with the intent of starting a race conversation between customers and staff. This conversation never really got started, and the backlash was HUGE. It turns out people didn’t want to have a deep conversation when they were grabbing their cup of joe. Fast forward three years and the conversation is now happening, but in a different way. A Starbucks employee called the police on two black men in one of their stores as they were sitting waiting for a friend before they ordered their coffee. Considered loiterers, they were thrown out. Today, Starbucks is holding the much needed conversation about race with their employees so Starbucks will be closed this afternoon. The conversation will include diversity training, and Schultz will make the training and results available to the public.

As I stand about the story, with distance, I see the willingness that Schultz had to be the place for this to happen. I applaud him and his guts. What are you, what am I willing to be a place for? It will be uncomfortable; but it has to be … that’s the definition of “out of the comfort zone.”

The second email I got was a notification of a posting from Facebook. A minister colleague who never talks politics, stays out of the fray of everything, wrote a beautiful post about separating children from their parents as a new political strategy. She said, “Mr President, would you want your grand children separated from Ivanka?”

From our public discourse it would appear that our country has lost its moral and ethical center; its Soul. Today I commit to examining who I am, what I stand for, where my commitments and congruence may be out of whack and sit in silence to hear what is mine to do. In the meanwhile, I salute Howard Schultz, Starbucks and my minister colleague for being a space for light.

Love you friends,