When I took my toddlers into a store, it never led to success when I said, "Don't touch anything!" Or worse yet, "Don't break anything!" What was more effective was, "Put your hands in your pockets and keep them there."

Eight years ago, I travelled to Idaho for a holiday with friends on a mountain lake. For a long time after I got home, I left this poem on my printer, so I would see it when I printed work-related items. 

I'm not sure that I get to fully wave the flag of my outrage or despair or disbelief these days. Instead, I may just get to acknowledge that I'm only truly beginning to fully absorb the daily experience--inconveniences, harassment, worries, precautions, small fears, and huge, legitimate fears for family members' lives--of my darker-skinned brothers and sisters.