Christmas and the Courage to Change

Guest Opinion by Lisa Ward

Christmas reminds us of who we can be when we soften. For a brief moment the world quiets its hatred, lowers its guard, and chooses kindness. That pause matters. Lingering in that softness a little longer is where healing begins, not just in spirit but in action.

This message is for white people who use privilege as a ladder instead of a bridge. The work is not in proving you are better than others. The work is in changing the behaviors that uphold systems that harm Black people. Racism is not only loud cruelty. It is the everyday permission to move first, to be believed first, to feel entitled to comfort while others inherit struggle.

Imagine a race where one group has been forced to start ten steps behind for generations. Then imagine being told the race is fair because everyone is running now. That is what systemic racism looks like at a basic level. Generations of Black families have been exposed to barriers that compound over time while being told to simply work harder. Calling that out is not an attack. It is an invitation to see clearly.

We hear the phrase we are not ready for a Black leader. We have heard it before. We heard it until it happened, and when it did we survived, and in many ways we thrived under that leadership. That phrase has never been about readiness. It is fear dressed up as caution. It is a way to bait others into resisting change without naming the fear underneath. If you are saying you are not ready, the truth is you need to get ready. Change is not waiting. The world is already moving.

Progress has always required faith. Faith in equality. Faith that growth is possible. Faith that letting go of old comforts does not mean losing humanity but gaining it. Life constantly leads us to moments where we must evolve, choose differently, and accept change or be left behind by it.

Movements are not led by one person alone. They are carried by an army. I know the kind of army I want beside me. One that does not waiver. One that does not buckle under pressure. One that understands that justice is not seasonal and that the softness we allow ourselves at Christmas is not weakness but proof of what we are capable of becoming if we choose it every day.

We all feel the shift. Hanging on to a dying and lost cause of how we govern in this state is not how we offer our children a future. Times have changed and their future depends on us chafing with those times.

I invite you to leave more of the same in 2025 as we approach the new year with a new mindset in how we want our state to evolve.  Let’s lose the racism behind another name hiding behind the R’s and D’s and start neutralizing our prejudices by seeing one another as neighbors, not just tax payers.. and begin to see each other, not for who we think they are but how we hope we can become.

Lisa Ward is a former Democratic nominee for the Alabama State Senate, a political leader and advocate with more than three decades of experience advancing justice, equity, and community empowerment. She is known for grassroots organizing and coalition-building across the State, and is committed to policy solutions that uplift marginalized communities and strengthen democracy.

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