Reflecting on the Impact of Racism

Dear Venerable, Vintage Villagers:

 This letter is to inform you of my resolve to write no more incidents of the racism that I have experienced in my lifetime.

 I know the writings were not pleasant to read and it gave me no pleasure revisiting them as I wrote.

 Dick Meyers persuaded me to take on this task as a means of informing the many people whom he says do not believe that racism exists or that it ever has.
 The premise is, “a problem cannot be addressed until it is first acknowledged,” and Dick, as head of the 1619 Discussion Group, believes this truth, and that awareness of it is needed.

 When I chose The Village and The Village accepted/welcomed me, it was because we saw things in each other that we wanted and needed, like inclusivity, acceptance, similarities, commonalities, respect and opportunities to develop latent aspirations together.

 We’ve lived long enough to learn that what we need is each other – that’s all, and that life can be beautiful.

 To the loud sighing of my daughter, I can connect a song to nearly every aspect of life and at this time the words to a song by Foreigner comes to my mind:

 “In my life I’ve known heartache and pain,
 I don’t know if I can face it again,
 Can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far,
 To change this lonely life.
 I wanna know what love is,
 I want you to show me.”

And, The Village has shown me since 2016, and I want to continue to savor every bit of it, and so must you; thus, my decision.

Love,

 Lora Harrington-Pride
 6/28/25

*You can view Lora's other writings by clicking on her name "tag" at the top of this post.