I want to be a gentle, loving, patient, and compassionate activist, but I’m not.

I get fired up because I see how ineffective we are compared to what we could be.

I get uncomfortable, vocal, passionate, pissed, and agitated. But courage, fortitude, strength, integrity, honesty, and assertiveness are also virtues I carry.

We need an omnipresent movement, now.

We need it online, in the streets, in our daily lives, in our conversations.

We need it in the hearts and on the lips of our elected officials.

We need it in our law enforcement, courtrooms, and in our legislative bodies.

If you post a black square but do not call out racism, sexism, and homophobia, you’re supporting the cause, but you are not helping us dismantle the negativity.

If you don’t post a black square, but you list the litany of ways you’re an activist, you’re not as effective as you could be.

If you write #alllivesmatter you negate #blacklivesmatter.

When your ego rises, and you get defensive in conversation or to this kind of post, you just made the movement about you and not about the movement. We need an ego-less omnipresent movement.

We need it everywhere all the time at the same time.

When I challenge my peers on this, I am met with excuses, ego, defensiveness, ignorance, privilege, resistance, discomfort, and an effort to silence me. They need to ease their discomfort because we have not learned how to be objectionable for a more significant cause.

We need an omnipresent movement, and we need it now.