Alexander Sankey EYA Intern 2020 Blog #1 June 21, 2020

These beginning weeks of the internship have been very insightful, and in my experience, has brought me closer to understand the church's relationship with the world and with America. I am still saddened, disheartened, and discouraged about the racism that is alive and well in our country. I am still saddened that our police, who have sworn to protect the people, can display such brutal acts against people who are not the same background, skin tone, or sexuality as them. These past couple of weeks has shown me how cruel this world is, and I know it sounds cliche to say this but I feel like I am not the same person I was yesterday, and tomorrow I will not be the same person I was today. It hurts to read about the cruelty we show to people, animals, and plant life. It literally blew my mind to read that the Trump administration is taking steps to remove regulations that protect endangered species so he could fill his pockets and the pockets of his associates. How can we be so far removed from God that we kill his creation? In our first Wednesday devotion, we read about the Israelite's and the oppression they suffered through before the Exodus. An important thing the writer expanded on was that the Israelite's groaned in their suffering and God heard the groaning. It reminded me that we continue to suffer under the oppression of rulers, however they are no longer called Pharaoh or King. Our oppression is named inter-generational poverty, gentrification, systemic racism, police brutality, SNAP "benefits," sexism, genocide of our neighbors, health services being out of reach to low income Americans, etc. The police brutality we are beginning to see recently is not even the tip of the ice berg, there is so many things wrong that need to be righted. We as American people, both colored and white are angered at the inequality that we as persons of color have faced for centuries. We groan in our oppression and God hears us, God hears our pains, He has always heard our pains. God was not absent, He is never absent in our lives, He needs us to place our faith in Him and tell Him that we cannot do things without Him. We are seeing change today because God is making it so, with the work of the people and the prayers that are lifted to God, we have been able to make change. Recently I watched a music video of the late rapper Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, stage name XXXTENTACION, and at the end of the video he gave a short essay about the racism in our system a few years ago when the video was released. It is interesting how the message is still true today, hopefully in the next few years things will be different. All in all, I have high hopes for this internship and I already feel like it is making me become a better person. It gives me hope for the future of America that young people are wanting to advocate on social justice issues. In closing I would like to share a few words that Onfroy has given us, "This generation will be loved, nurtured, heard, and understood."