{"id":7036,"date":"2017-09-29T16:12:58","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T20:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=7036"},"modified":"2017-09-29T16:13:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T20:13:26","slug":"voices-of-trinity-a-heavy-heart-by-kevin-bouknight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2017\/09\/voices-of-trinity-a-heavy-heart-by-kevin-bouknight\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices of Trinity: “A Heavy Heart” by Kevin Bouknight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I am pleased to have a guest blogger, Kevin A. Bouknight, a Human Relations major in the School of Professional Studies.\u00a0 Kevin has two children and is a minister, fourth generation, both of his parents are ministers as well.\u00a0 He sent me this essay reflecting on the current state of affairs in our nation and I was so moved I asked his permission to publish it on this blog.\u00a0 Thank you, Kevin, for speaking from your heart!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Trinity<\/a>A Heavy Heart<\/strong><\/h2><\/span>\n

By Kevin A. Bouknight, Human Relations major, SPS<\/em><\/p>\n

As a father, my true American dream is where my children are safe and free to be children.\u00a0 My dream is to live what Dr.\u00a0 Martin Luther King, Jr. said: to have my children judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.\u00a0 I would add: nor the assumption of race by the spelling of their names.<\/em><\/p>\n

My dream is not farfetched or nonsensical.\u00a0 Growing up, I experienced living in a neighborhood that could best be described as a local version of United Nations.\u00a0 Families from different nations and cultures lived in peaceful and harmonious community with each other.\u00a0 We all went to the same schools.\u00a0 We all played together.\u00a0 We all had sleepovers.\u00a0 Every house\u2019s door swung on welcome hinges.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, this was in the 1970s, right after the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n

What happened?\u00a0 My children did not have that experience.\u00a0 Neighbors no longer are neighbors.\u00a0 The only way people who live next door to each other know each other\u2019s names is by accident.\u00a0 That is so sad.\u00a0 There is a scripture that says: \u201che who has friends must first show himself friendly,\u201d (Proverbs 18:24).\u00a0 However, we keep our heads down and eyes glued to our phones\/tablets\/iPads.<\/p>\n

My heart is heavy.\u00a0 We don\u2019t care about each other anymore.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about me, myself, and I, sometimes mine (as in family).\u00a0 As the old song asks: where is the love?\u00a0 What happens to others should affect us, even if that person is not a close personal friend.\u00a0 We have become very desensitized to the plight of others.\u00a0 We use the excuse that \u201cit\u2019s not my business.\u201d\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 How would you feel if nobody cared about you?\u00a0 Seeing this uncaring attitude makes my heart ache.<\/p>\n

My father (a minister) gave me some insight about love vs. hate.\u00a0 According to my dad, the opposite of love is not hate.\u00a0 It is not caring.\u00a0 Think about that.\u00a0 In order to hate something, you have to care about it or it had to have done something to you.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t care, whatever happens, happens and you aren\u2019t fazed left or right about it.\u00a0 You are not affected by it.\u00a0 You don\u2019t think about it.\u00a0 As far as you\u2019re concerned, it is a tiny gnat that died when no one was looking.<\/p>\n

Hatred, on the other hand, is just as powerful as love.\u00a0 It is the same as love, just at the other end of the same spectrum.\u00a0 The passion is the same.\u00a0 The level of emotion is the same.\u00a0 Both will make you cry, and in some cases, laugh.\u00a0 Both have a positive and negative side.\u00a0 The difference is hate is used to hurt others.\u00a0 Love is used to help others.\u00a0 Hate is selfish.\u00a0 Love is selfless.<\/p>\n

Recent events have brought me to tears: the shootings of unarmed Black men, the bombings in London and Paris, the rioting in many places, the civil unrest in Charlottesville, VA.\u00a0 All of it is shameful, disheartening, divisive, unholy, just downright wrong.\u00a0 When I think that there are those who, because they feel threatened, join hate groups like the KKK or the neo-Nazis or the Black Panthers, my heart hurts.\u00a0 To know that the mentality of a good chunk of the United States is stuck in the 1800s is heartbreaking.\u00a0 Can\u2019t we all just get along?<\/p>\n

I am an African-American male and native Washingtonian.\u00a0 I recently walked down Wisconsin Avenue one evening, going home after school.\u00a0 As I walked past this older Caucasian woman, she moved away and clutched her purse with one hand and her jacket with the other.\u00a0 Rather than walk past silently, I said to her, \u201cMa\u2019am, I don\u2019t want what\u2019s in your purse or what\u2019s on your person.\u00a0 You have nothing I want.\u201d\u00a0 And I kept walking.<\/p>\n

When I got home, I cried.\u00a0 I was more concerned about her safety than being the one to compromise it.\u00a0 I actually wanted to walk her home to make sure no one bothered her.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I was raised.\u00a0 My parents taught me to care for the elderly.\u00a0 They taught me to honor my father and mother, then they qualified that a mother and a father was a person that was older than me.\u00a0 It meant that an older person was my mother and father even if s\/he did not give birth to me.\u00a0 So, for that woman to do that hurt my heart.<\/p>\n

My heart is very heavy.\u00a0 There\u2019s this man who works in the Oval Office who is a bigoted racist.\u00a0 I flatly refuse to dignify him by calling him the \u201cP\u201d word.\u00a0 As far as I am concerned, my president\u2019s name is Obama.\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about him.\u00a0 Donald Trump is a racist, plain and simple.\u00a0 In my experience, when a person has to constantly and vehemently deny that he is a racist, it\u2019s because he is <\/em>one and is trying to convince other people that he isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

To condone racism blows my mind.\u00a0 Then again, the fruit doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree.\u00a0 His father was KKK, so he grew up in that environment.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take a quantum leap to assume he holds those same values dear.\u00a0 We have seen evidence of racial discrimination.\u00a0 We have seen evidence of sexism.\u00a0 We have seen evidence of intolerance.\u00a0 Yet, he was elected to the highest office in the United States.\u00a0 What does that say about this country?<\/p>\n

When I look at how the world is laughing at us, my heart is heavy.\u00a0 I recently obtained my passport.\u00a0 But, I don\u2019t want to travel abroad anymore.\u00a0 I fear being ridiculed because of Trump\u2019s stupidity.\u00a0 No American should live like that.\u00a0 And, this world is too big for that.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s there and it ain\u2019t goin\u2019 away anytime soon unless Trump learns the value of shutting up.\u00a0 There is an old proverb: it is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it.<\/p>\n

My grandfather lived to see the first African American president.\u00a0 I remember his tears of joy.\u00a0 Thank God he did not live to see where we have fallen since that momentous day.\u00a0 His tears would be of shame now.\u00a0 Will their grandfather, my dad, ever shed tears of joy like his father did?\u00a0 Will they see that?\u00a0 My heart truly is heavy.\u00a0 I have no answers for my children.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Do you have a story you want to tell, a perspective to share with the Trinity community?\u00a0 Send me your essay on email and I will consider publishing it on this blog.\u00a0 Send to president@trinitydc.edu <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @TrinityPrez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPS Human Relations Major Kevin Bouknight reflects on racism, civility, fear and leadership. He shares his thoughts on the current state of our nation with “A Heavy Heart.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[509,6,23,24],"tags":[1901,68,1900,1851,1902,1681,360,1734,368],"class_list":["post-7036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-human-rights","category-media","category-social-issues","category-social-justice-issues","tag-african-american-president","tag-barack-obama","tag-black-men","tag-charlottesville","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-president-obama","tag-president-trump","tag-racism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}