Recently, our nation has had several high-profile cases where black men have been killed by law enforcement officers or neighborhood watch members. Any death is tragic. We should remember all those who were cut down by violence whether or not their deaths were televised or otherwise recognized in the media. Each of them has left behind mothers, father, brothers, and sisters.

Recently, I was privileged to watch a lone voice speak out on the things I feel but have no right to voice. Fredrick Wilson II gives us straight talk on Ferguson, Travon Martin, you and me. His video channel is named: I’m Just Saying. Please be aware, he expresses some things coarsely.

In the video, Mr. Wilson speaks about events that took place fifty years ago. So what happened back then?

President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) sums up the situation in his 1965 voting rights speech before Congress:

But voting rights were only part of the story. Here’s a history of events leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is the text of President Kennedy’s Civil Rights speech. Unfortunately, he was assassinated before his legislation was enacted. It was intentionally stalled in Congress. It took a Southern Democrat and former Senate Majority Leader (Johnson) to ram it through the Congress.

In my essay: The Revolt Against the Masses – A Review (Part 1), I told the story of my origins. I was born in a Harlem hospital, raised in Inwood, moved up to the East Harlem public housing projects, and then, after moving again and through hardships my mother took on, had access to good schools outside my immediate neighborhood (Manhattan Valley on the Upper West Side just below Morningside Heights).

Seen as privileged because of the white shirts and ties my mother dressed me in, I was discriminated against in the ways preteen children often do. Ours was a multicultural intermediate school (Nee junior high) before that term was fashionable. It was fed by several schools serving low, middle, and upper income families.

My mother made sure I had friends from all economic classes. Now, I wish I did again. We’re all stratified by where we live, work, and shop. Even our churches are mainly homogeneous by economics and race. This is sadly true even in the black community. I see the situation as a particular failure of the churches in America. It shouldn’t be this way. That’s why I was drawn to Mr. Wilson’s video. He spoke from his head and heart. I imagine he spoke from an upbringing like the one I had. Actually, it seemed better, because my father was often absent.

Greta Van Susteren also speaks on our common predicament. Please watch her video:

VIDEO: A Reminder to Charlatans Who Like to Demonize All Police …

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) December 6, 2014

I want the nation to be racially and economically reconciled. But that isn’t some abstract thing that happens. It happens one by one on the ground where we live. All I can say is let it start with me.