Real change starts with real conversation

If we are ever going to achieve change, we have to talk about all of it. We have to get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. We have to tell all of history, including the ugly parts. 

How does this important hard work start?

We have to get honest with ourselves. History is much like one's life. It has success, but it also has just as much failure, if not more. I know I have personally walked some very hard roads and made some terrible decisions both, personally and professionally. When I look back at those hard moments in my life, I see how they taught me something. I had to make a change in my life. I can’t talk about my success without acknowledging the failures. 

Our kids need us to get comfortable talking about race, systemic racism, oppression, power, privilege, immigration, discrimination, corruption and more. We don’t have to have the answers, but we need to ask the questions. Starting that conversation is the first step in creating real change. 

I am the first to admit, I don’t have the answers, but I do have the desire to do better. Maya Angelou once said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." 

My education of knowing better has started by listening. From books, documentaries, speakers, classes, podcasts and friends, I have actively started to understand my role in the problem and my role in the solution. As a family, we have found ways to support causes that educate, empower, and embody the world we want to see for our children’s generation. 

Change will not happen without active participants and it’s not a problem that a few individuals can solve. It starts at one's dinner table, neighborhood, community, city, state, country, world. This requires all of us to listen, learn and have conversations.