“A house divided against itself will not stand.”

This is not only from the Bible, but it is common sense, whether it refers to our own families, our circle of friends, our churches, our communities, our nation, our world.

Unless we pull together, we will be fragmented.

Some weeks ago, and now in the light of more than 250 mass shootings this year in the U.S., I was so troubled by what I see as ongoing racism in this nation that I emailed a friend in Albemarle to ask if she thought it was time to have “the conversation” with our fellow Stanly County citizens.

“The conversation” is the one we haven’t had in this country, much less in this county and in our churches, about what has plagued us since the 1600s when slaves were first brought to this country … and going back to 1400s when the first settlers started coming and taking over the land of our First Peoples.

I asked my friend if it is time to have the race question discussed in Stanly.

“Truly, I believe that until our country comes to grips with the question, we will continue to writhe in turmoil. Do you think our faith leaders could make this happen, along with others of like mind?”

My friend’s answer was, in part: “…no easy solution I am afraid … particularly on a local level …. I’m not sure our church leaders are willing to wade into these serious issues for fear of the rabid retaliation they may receive from some. It’s really depressing.”

My fellow citizens, with so much ill-will (I will refrain from using that awful word, hate) abounding in our country, from outright incivility at all levels, from he who is supposed to be our leader to the rest of us, from the instability of people who become domestic terrorists, well, with so much ill-will, is it not the right time to have this discussion?

Perhaps it could be a discussion of racism and ill-will, but we must address the elephant in the room: racism.

Who will be willing to step forward to help create such a conversation?

Let your faith leader and me know. Maybe we can get a handful of hopefuls together to begin.

Nancy C. Bryant
Norwood