Dear friends of Live Your Virtue:

I’ve struggled with the news of the verdict in Derek Chauvin’s trial, and, if you’ll forgive me for posting a personal message, I’d like to share some reflections with you. 
This verdict will be greeted in many ways by different communities and people. It is, no doubt, a milestone for many, a symbol of a long-unfulfilled promise of justice and equality. It is that, but it is more than that. For me, there is a sense of grief that this trial took place at all — not because I am unaware of police violence against people of color, but precisely because of it. Months ago, I posted my thoughts about the murder of George Floyd, and looking back on what I said, watching what has transpired in the months since, it’s easy to feel wholly inadequate to the tasks of healing our communities and our nation. Where do we begin? Where do I begin?
But then I’m reminded of the place where I found grounding and hope last summer: our classrooms, whatever they may look like. Let me address all of you who teach: I’m not asking you to abandon your calling as scholars and seekers of truth. Betraying our calling for an easy ideology isn’t the way forward. What is the way forward?
Look beyond your classroom, at the lives you touch. George Floyd was a human being; take a moment to see in that one human being the wholeness of the life that was taken from him, his aspirations and fears, his connections to others, his pain. Try to see in George Floyd a story that is pervasive in our history, from the beginning to the present moment — a story that we could untell, or that we can keep telling. And see in George Floyd the countless losses behind those stories, losses of lives, aspirations, accomplishments, dreams. Remember that your students, all those who look to you for guidance, whoever they are — all are human beings with aspirations and fears and connections, Believe that our classrooms can be places where we nurture not just talents and skills, but a different future.
And please remember what I asked of you last summer. Support each other in this work, give your students gifts of understanding and insight, and above all, model the strength it takes not to look away from unpleasant or inconvenient truth. 
That’s how our classrooms become places of healing and transformation — for us, as much as for our students. Don’t turn away.

Matthew