This past week we have all watched as the country (and the world) reacted to watching the death of an American citizen on social media.
And, unfortunately, this is now more than just one act of brutality against another American citizen that should have been innocent until proven guilty.
Objectively, this has become a pattern of behavior without visible accountability.
At Cahaba, we have a set of core values we use to guide us in our day-to-day activities and interactions that we refer to as Cahaba’s Core Culture Competencies, or C4’s for short. One of our C4’s (C4-#32) is to “Respect Others” and have the “humility and lack of ego” to “stay curious and empathetic.” We do not lose sight of the fact that “impact is not the same as intent” but “instead, give love and respect, seek to understand, and have the humility to apologize.”
What this embodies is Allyship, which is the “continuous process in which someone with privilege and power seeks to first learn about the experiences of a marginalized group of people, and then ultimately empathizes with their challenges and build relationships with that group of people.”
This week we have heard from several employees and patients who were outraged, hurt, and even traumatized over recent events, and the unequivocal message is that we must now listen… and listen to understand so that we can help give voice to their experiences and feelings.
The Bible exhorts us to “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice” (Proverbs 31:8-9 NLT)
Cahaba Medical Care is founded on the principles of love, peace, and justice. And when this foundation is threatened for our teammates and patients, we must stand. We must speak. And we remain committed until true change finally occurs.
Therefore:
We should listen to and speak for our patients and coworkers who have been victims of brutality in all its forms.
We should listen to and speak for our patients and coworkers who are denied justice and the presumption of innocence.
We should listen to and speak for our patients and coworkers who are economically disenfranchised or impoverished with little hope of relief.
We should listen to and speak for our patients and coworkers who are suffering from healthcare disparities.
At Cahaba Medical Care, we have a long-standing internal commitment to diversity, inclusion, and cultural humility, to our teammates and employees, as well as to our patients. We hire locally, and we live and serve and love in our communities, both rural and urban. And we go to great lengths to achieve benchmarks in health equity measuring our success in caring for those who have been silenced and ignored.
Like Esther, we recognize the risk of speaking, given the incredible fact that even acknowledging these disparities and speaking out about them has somehow become “political.”
Of course “All Lives Matter.” Of course we appreciate our fellow public servants in law enforcement who bravely risk their lives and serve on the front lines along with healthcare workers. We are all created in His image. It is not a “zero sum game.”
But “all lives” are not being discriminated against and brutalized.
Jesus went to find the 1 sheep. He did not stay with the fold and say 99 sheep matter.
When a house is on fire, of course all houses matter, but just one gets the full undivided attention of the fire department, until the tragedy is resolved and healing can begin.
This is not about riots or protests. But it is worth considering why riots and protests are happening.
"Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Since it is our black neighbors, that STILL… in 2020… are being devalued and overlooked… we must finally stop and listen. We, at CMC, want to truly make a difference in the lives of the patients we care for and the communities we serve in. Then, we have to understand the history of those individuals and those communities. We have to be curious about their backgrounds, their fears, their dreams. We have to stop talking and be willing, with openness and humility, to hear their perspectives formulated from another life lived, seeking to understand... not to defend the status quo. And then, armed with this new understanding of a different perspective we must be ready to speak in ways that will affect lasting change for the people and communities that we have promised to serve and love. Yes, we will SPEAK and say Black Lives Matter.