Let it Matter

Singing is a hopeful and revolutionary act. This is especially true when songs bend toward the difficult and unfamiliar, for that is when music’s grace gives us access to things that words alone can’t express.

Let It Matter grew out of my own experience of facing some unfamiliar and difficult things. As a “white American” I had always known that my life experiences were different from those of people of color. Nevertheless, I found that I had an inner resistance to believing that racism was deeply entrenched in my country’s law enforcement departments. I had never witnessed or experienced police brutality myself, so it was tempting for me to presume that it was a rare occurrence. Yet evidence increasingly showed that that was clearly not the case. This concerned me greatly. I had some work to do.

While I was wrapping my head around this appalling reality, something else began to concern me. In their zeal to be heard and effect change, some protesters issued sweeping condemnations of absolutely everyone in law enforcement, or even everyone identifying as white. I worried that such blanket accusations could shut down the very conversations that might bring about change.

Over time I came to realize that both of these world views were deeply rooted in authentic personal experience. Because of this, both held important pieces of the truth. But neither one encompassed the whole truth. As the opening lyric of Let It Matter asserts, “Every story has a flip side.”

A third source of inspiration for Let it Matter was Circle of Peace, a neighborhood group that has met at my church for dinner every week for the past ten years. Circle of Peace is comprised of youth, parents, grandparents, police officers, business owners and community members. The agenda of these meetings is simple: To listen to and to speak personal stories, experiences and concerns in order to create a safer, more compassionate, and more just world.

It is an act of courage to simultaneously hold your own story and someone else’s story in your hands with gentleness, without dismissing either one. But that is exactly what the members of Circle of Peace endeavor to do. I hope Let it Matter reflects in some way the dedication, pain, grit and hope that keep that circle alive week after week. I do know that for me, writing this song brought me a few steps closer to “opening up the prison of my mind.”