Cultivating Change from the Inside Out: The Backstory

PART 2 OF 2

Photo Courtesy of JD Mason on Unsplash

THE CAIRO QUESTION

The two streams of personal experiences discussed in Part 1 of this series— An Activist Mother and The Bomb Threat—came together in 2020, shortly after the birth of my second grandson, Cairo in March, and the murder of George Floyd in May.

They came together to form the third stream which ultimately resulted in the book, Cultivating Change from the Inside Out.

Both my daughters and a nephew were preparing for a Black Lives Matter protest in Pittsburgh in early June in response to the loss of George Floyd.

I walked into the room where my younger daughter was sitting, and noticed a solemn look on her face.

I sat down next to her. We had a conversation and in that moment realized our family represented three generations of protesters — my mother, myself, and now my daughters.

All protesting for the same exact thing — our birthright to freely and peacefully exist in the skin in which we were born.

Our conversation led Olivia to pose The Cairo Question:
Will Cairo have to protest in his lifetime?

A statement I wrote in the dedication of the book reflects this question:
“It is dedicated to my…