There are billions and billions of stars. You and I cannot see them all, cannot perceive their light, their radiance, their beauty. Does this mean they don’t shine just as brightly as the stars we can see? Should distance, even light years of it, lessen our belief in the beauty of those unseen stars? Should we acknowledge only the beauty of the stars visible to us, those we have seen and explored and understood?

There are billions and billions of humans. Just like stars, they are born, they burn brightly, and they die. Just like stars, they are vast and glorious. In many ways, though, the life of a single human is worth a million of those big, beautiful stars; in ways that we can never fully fathom, one person can touch the lives of every single person in the world, even in the smallest of ways. Isn’t that something? Stars cannot affect each other that way. Their light is beautiful, but no other stars can register it or feel it. We, as human beings, have the unique ability to affect the situations and feelings of other people, even those we don’t know, those we will never know. In the last few years, it has become shockingly apparent to me that some of us seem to have forgotten about the profound effect we have on other people’s lives. It has become evident that we have forgotten about compassion, reason, and mercy – three of the most essential parts of the human spirit. In the struggle for equality and fair treatment, we have forgotten how to treat others with kindness, even if we feel they are undeserving. It is not an easy thing to do, especially since we all believe our own moral sense superior to others’. Let justice be served, but never revenge. Let us hate only hatred. Let us kill injustice and inequality, instead of each other.

Change will come, as it always does. Good will win out, as it always has. Already, the situations of marginalized groups have brightened. We are starting to realize that love is love, that women are as powerful and competent as men, that we cannot (should not) judge a person by the color of their skin, and that the world is a much more complex grayscale than we could have ever imagined. Of course, we are not nearly there yet, and it’s frustrating – it seems that marginalized groups are pushed back every time they take a step forward. I cannot imagine the feelings or strength of those who fight so long and so hard even when they are pushed down. Continue to protest. Continue to march and to shout and to live, to defy and everyone’s expectations. Continue to survive. Continue to defy those who have tried to crush you for so long. But please… Please remember what you fight for – for peace, and mercy, and goodness. Do not taint your good intentions with reckless, violent actions. Do not give your critics the opportunity to tear you down. Your fight will be long and difficult enough without having to fight vilification and defamation. Fight only to defend, and never to kill.

This is for everyone: liberal or conservative, black or white, straight or gay, rich or poor. Remember your power. Remember your capacity for understanding and empathy. Remember that we are, all of us, more similar than different. Enough blood has been shed and drawn in the name of justice: Dallas, Orlando, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice… The names remain etched in my mind. My bones feel heavy, and I am so tired. I write this passage in the hopes that it will change one mind, that it will touch one person. Because if it touches one person, it will touch a thousand others. Please. Let the change I make be a good one. Let all the changes we make be good ones. Let our changes be born of love and courage and compassion, not of bullets and corpses and pools, swamps, rivers of blood. I’m sick of red. I think we all are.

When I look at the stars tonight, I will not feel small and insignificant, as so many say they do. I will meditate in their light, but know the light I produce is much greater. It is true for all of us, and it is not a truth to be wasted. Our opinions and experiences may differ, but we are still united in our humanity, in our spirit. Do not let it die. Do not let hatred, anger, and ignorance put out our light. If we do, we are all lost.