Message by Colleen Appel and Susanne Bounds

Moment of Perspective – “Take 5” (Deep Breaths) – AJ Fox

The opening words are from the article “Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions,” by Sendhil Mullainathan:

 “…Ugly pockets of conscious bigotry remain in this country, but most discrimination is more insidious. The urge to find and call out the bigot is powerful and doing so is satisfying. But it is also a way to let ourselves off the hook. Rather than point fingers outward, we should look inward — and examine how, despite best intentions, we discriminate in ways big and small.” 

Guide My Feet
Traditional Spiritual
Performed by Eva Riebold
Public Domain

Lift Every Voice and Sing
Music by J. Rosamond Johnson, lyrics by James Weldon Johnson
Performed by John Prescott and Eva Riebold
Public Domain

A New World
Written and Performed by This is LEA
Permission Granted

Let Me Be the Change
Written by Emily and Mark McKinney
Performed by Emily McKinney, Mark McKinney, and Luna Hamburg
Permission Granted

The closing words are from The Purpose of This Community is to Help Its People Grow, by Erik Walker Wikstrom.

if none of us has changed
since the day we came in here—
we have failed…
The purpose of this community…
is to help its people grow…
So may you go forth from here this morning
not who you were,
but who you could be.