Church community,
Today was our seventh day together and our sixth day on the road. We’ve gone 90 miles so far. About 40 to go. It was hot as blazes out there, and as we walked along one lane of the Robert E. Lee Interstate, you could feel the heat radiating off the asphalt.
It was a privilege to walk today with 7-year-old Maya, 8-year-old-Aria, and their dad, Shane. They live in a small Virginia town and heard about our walk on the radio. They showed up this morning, fired up and ready to roll. The girls were amazing - happily leading us from the front. Our core crew - those who are walking the full distance from Charlottesville to Washington, DC - is about 15 people. But we are picking up walkers and will be joined by many more as we approach Black Lives Plaza in DC where we our group will be part of the March on Washington event.
I think that Aria and Maya will be with us again tomorrow. I hope that as they grow up - wherever they find themselves - they remember how it felt to lead a group of people who believe that a world where Jacob Blake’s children would not watch their father shot by police, and a world where Breonna Taylor, right now, would be coming off a shift after saving lives as an EMT would be possible. I hope they are as marked by this short time on this hot road as I am.
*I am participating in a nine-day, 140 mile walk from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC as part of the national “Walk the Walk” pilgrimage of white faith leaders to RECKON with the anti-Blackness that permeates our past and present as a nation and as faith institutions, RESOLVE to advance racial justice in our faith traditions and nation, and REFRAME the faith narrative in this nation. This is co-organized by Faith in Action, the national network of POWER Interfaith, of which our congregation is a part. More here at https://walkthewalk2020.us/
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