Back to ‘normal’? No. Let’s create a better normal
For several weeks I had been hearing and speaking about the “new normal.” The concept of a new normal is a way of adapting to all the changes that have come in the past few months. However, since George Floyd was killed, I have stopped thinking about getting back to normal. Between the shock of the video of his death, the protests, the riots, the increasing sense of frustration, dysfunction, and polarization at our higher levels of government, and the continuing pain of COVID-19, getting back to the way things used to be does not seem to be a good or possible option.
More pressing concerns are upon us now. Many of us have awakened and have begun to realize that the America we thought we lived in, with its freedoms, rights and ethos of the common good, has a seedy underbelly that has privileged some and harmed others. The average white person, especially white men like me, has not experienced discrimination nor purposely imposed it on anyone. Watching (I confess I couldn’t watch it myself ) George Floyd die exposed some of the dire outcomes of the racism that has been around for many generations, a racism I thought would have been gone by the time I was an adult but has not left us, and will not leave us, unless we actively work on it.
Combining the death of George Floyd with the ongoing and deepening polarization of our political life, I am not sure how much longer we can continue until something breaks. How can we resolve our problems if we cannot agree that we have them and they should be addressed? The answer is, we cannot.
When there are issues I cannot resolve and problems I cannot fix, I have learned to take a different approach: I take the next faithful step. What does the next step look like now? It looks like not waiting for someone to take responsibility, but taking responsibility for myself. It looks like doing what is in my power to do. For instance, we have mayors, city officials, police officers, and people who will listen and speak with us. Nothing prevents us from reaching out to have conversations. Nothing prevents us from bridging color, religion or other divisions that separate us. In fact, it seems to me the next step right now is to purposely cross one or more of those lines and have an honest conversation, caring for that other person and asking them to care for us. Whatever needs to follow from that point will be revealed as we get there. When Israel wandered in the wilderness, it was not so much because they were unable to find a way to the Promised Land, but because they were not ready. Each step we take helps build a bridge to a better tomorrow.
Instead of focusing on getting back to normal, may we together build a new normal. The problem with the “old normal” is that it prevented some of our friends and neighbors from being heard, accepted and loved. We have an opportunity now that some of life is returning to normal to chart a “new normal.” As Amos prophesied on God’s behalf, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24.) May we not return to normal, but create a bridge to a better life for everyone.
Many of us have awakened and have begun to realize that the America we thought we lived in, with its freedoms, rights and ethos of the common good, has a seedy underbelly that has privileged some and harmed others. The average white person, especially white men like me, has not experienced discrimination nor purposely imposed it on anyone. Watching (I confess I couldn’t watch it myself) George Floyd die exposed some of the dire outcomes of the racism that has been around for many generations.
Brian Sixbey is the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church Fox Hill in Hampton.