LIft up  your hands in the sanctuary,
and bless the Lord. Psalm 134:2

The Hebrew word for "sanctuary" is "mindash" which means "set apart as sacred" (Exodus 25:8). Sanctuary may be anywhere people go for peaceful  transquility or to commune with the Supreme Being, Great Spirit, God, or by whatever name a created person calls the Creator. Just as nobody has ever seen God; nobody has ever - accurately or sufficiently -  named God. Finite humans do not have enough wisdom to name the Infinite. Ultimately, sanctuary is the heart. That is the heart of the matter. The songwriter realized this when he penned these words: "Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary." He didn't say prepare me, to be wealthy or healthy, but to "be a sanctuary." God dwells with his people in the sanctuary.

"Lift up  your hands in the sanctuary." Praise, worship and bless the Lord with hands up. When we bless God, we bless people. Hands up is a friendship-gesture that informs potential-attackers that there is no need to fear being harmed, or for them to fight or kill. Hands up is a greeting of a peacemaker. Gladly heed the Psalmist's admonishment to "Lift up your hands."

At present when increased attention, more than in the past, is focused on the killing of African American boys and men, people across America of all races and ethnicities, are protesting against police killing of unarmed blacks men, in particular, and non-black men, in general. Let those protesting against injustice be aware of this truth proclaimed by Frederick Douglass: "Power never concede without demand." In the nineteenth fifties, following the arrest of Rosa Parks who refused to give her bus seat to a white man, it was direct action in the form of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, sit-ins and other civil disobedience demonstrations that caused or made the Federal Government change laws and polices that legalized discrimination against blacks, notwithstanding the fact that Governors in Southern States engaged in massive resistance to prevent integration and agreed with Alabama Governor George Wallace who prcalaimed "Segregation now, segregation yesterday, segregation forever."  He was a liar! People power has demonstrated many times that collectivee action can solve problems.

I salute young people who are currently engaged in the fight for freedom, equality and justice for all. Past generations have passed on a legacy of racism and injustice to the present generation. Members of  Congress who loudly exclaim "Don't pass on our debt to the next generation" would be well-advised to be as vociferous and act accordingly to not pass on a greater burden than debt whch is the burden of racism and injustice, to the next generation.

It is true that African Americans experience less injustice today than they did before the nineteen sixties. But they do not enjoy rights, benefits, privileges and responsibilities equal to those enjoyed by white Americans. The killing of black Americans is just a single example of existing inequities. The Montgomery Bus Boycott that occurred in the mid-nineteen fifties, in a certain way, began the moderrn civil rights movement. It was young people in their twenties, who were at the forefront of that bus boycott, namely, Maritn Luther King, Jr., Ralph D. Abernathy, Robert Graetz, a white minister, Fred Gray and Uriah J. Fields, this writer who was the orginial secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Association, that provided organizational structure for conducting the bus boycott. E. D. Nixon who I dedicated my book, "Inside the Montgomery Bus Boycott - My Personal Story" to and Jo Ann Robinson who taught me in college were two older persons engaged in the leadership of the bus boyott from its very beginning.

Since white policeman, Darren Wilson, killed 18-year old unarmed Michael Brown on Agust 9, 2014, white policmen have killed a number of unarmed African Americans that include: 22-year old John Crawford on August 5, of  Beaverceeek, Ohio, 25-year old Ezell Ford on August 11, of Los Angeles, 12-year old Tamir Rice on November 22, of  Cleveland, Ohio, 14-year old Cameron Tillman on September 21 of Terrebonne, Louisiana, reportedly killed by a black sheriff, and the earlier chokehold death on July 17, of 43-year old Eric Garner, father of six children of New York City.  During this period there where other blacks and non-backs killed by white policemen.

While the fight is not just about white policemen killing black people it is more about race than anything else. Race matters. The number of black people killed by policemen are 4.5 times that for white people. The extremely high number of blacks incarcerated is about race. Slavery was about race, denying blacks in the South the right to vote prior to the 1965 Voting Rights Act was about race, my serving in a segregated Army the first two years of my four-year tour of duty was about race. Race is the elephant in America.

Until a correction is made in policing that prevents policemen from killing unarmed black boys and men, all Americans who believe in justice for all, are urged by their God-given consciences to come out with their hands up into public places. When you lift up your hands in the sanctuary of your heart and livingness you bless God and man. Hands up!

Addendum:
To read "With My Two Hands" by Uriah J. Fields, visit: http://uriahfields.com/gpage11.html. If unable to access, click on the illuminated website "uriahfields.com" below and from the menu click on "With My Two Hands."

Copyright 2014 by Uriah J. Fields