This past Wednesday, September 28, 2016, a group of Lenoir-Rhyne seniors facilitated a silent sit-in to acknowledge the chaos surrounding police brutality. I was one of those seniors.

This event has opened my eyes to so many things, so I feel obligated to give you my first hand experience in the form of poetry.

Hard floors and numb rears

I sit here in silence because

they expect me to yell

I sit here

because my brother lay over there

bleeding out because

they were afraid of him

As my brothers blood flows into the sewage drains

his passion evaporates and rains down on the fields

of little brown children

they absorb his knowledge as well as his fear

My brother is dead

but his love will live on for eternity

I mourn the loss of my sisters

those that died because

angry was the only word

some used to describe them

Angry Black Woman!

They struck you down

right beside my brother

Pools of your blood meet

but I'm not sure this is what they meant

when they said one love

Mr. Officer

you lay there too

struck down because you were

feared like my brother

your love for protecting every citizen

drips onto the concrete

you hope it will leak onto

your evil brother

making him more gentle; more kind

and less likely to take out another on of mine

All bodies lay in the streets

being trampled by hate

souls being crushed by angry feet

no one ever looks down

stepping on the very hashtags they created

waiting on another to fall

This is a very special poem because it addresses many misunderstandings. Black Lives Matter does not mean that no other life does. It does not mean anti-white or anti-law enforcement. It just means that we matter, also. Because that's not something that's been realized by many. When you see riots and such on the television, you begin to associate that with every black face you see. You think the guy standing behind you in the grocery store must surely hate your guts, so you assume that they are not worthy of a smile. You fear him because of what people that look like him have done. That's not fair. This sit-in brought a ton of people together here at LR and we plan on facilitating more events in hopes of the same effect.

People fear what they do not know, so we encourage you to talk with us. We are here to educate. One Love.