PROTESTS | BLACK LIVES MATTER | YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO SPEAK UP - I cannot remain silent on this.  My heart is hurting as our country and our world continue to experience the results of long-term injustice for African Americans and people of color.  I support the Black Lives Matter Movement.  As a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, I understand the protests.  

I have a responsibility to respond as well as a personal obligation to respond as a mother to mixed-race children, and being married to a black man.  I have to recognize that I have benefited from being privileged in the country and world all of my life, and there is a responsibility for those that have been privileged, to understand that you have to SAY and do SOMETHING to create change and do our best to make the future better.  We are not at our best.  Black Lives Matter.  Let's not just make it a statement.  Let's take some kind of action to be better.