(In memory of Addie Mae Collins, 14, Cynthia Wesley, 14, Carole Robertson, 14, and Carol McNair, 11, murdered at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963.)
Addie Mae, Cynthia, Carole, and Carol, you might be wondering, like Marvin Gaye, what’s going on? I know that you haven’t known darkness or gray skies for so long. Sixty years on September 15. So, so long ago.
I know if you take the time from playing, singing, and all the wonderful things you enjoy that Heaven has to offer, you might wonder how we’re doing down here. The answer is…complicated.
I wish I could tell you that since you were taken from us so cruelly, so brutally, everything has gotten better.
I can’t.
I wish I could tell you that racism is dead and gone, and that people like the cowardly men who bombed the church and killed you are no more.
I wish I could, but I can’t.
I wish I could tell you that all we know is peace and love, that these days, people have more compassion and tenderness in their hearts towards us. Some do, but not enough. As it was back in 1963, some don’t know how, and don’t want to learn.
I can say that some things are better. Good laws have been passed. We can vote, for the most part. Our civil rights are guaranteed by law, even though that doesn’t mean much to some policemen.
But things have gotten better. Your deaths made a difference. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it did. There are so many things that we’ll never understand here on Earth. But God knows best, and you know Him better than us because you’re with Him all the time.
Know, you all have never been forgotten. Every year, the church remembers that day. Your family, friends, and loved ones keep your memory alive.
If you have a moment to talk to God, please ask Him to make this world a better place. We are still dying. People still have lots of hate in their heart, and as much as we try to change it, and pray that it changes, the hate keeps rolling on.
I’ll let you all go. I was just thinking. I turned three months old that day.
Sixty years seems so long for so little to have changed.
I guess that being in Heaven, you don’t need to worry about time.
I wish we could live like time doesn’t matter.
But it does.
Oh Lord, how much it matters.