Paul Simon from Nairobi

Paul joined our Neighborhood News event toward the end. We’d been going strong with reports from all over the world for at least an hour.

He realized it was almost over so he didn’t waste any time. He came right up to the podium.

He wanted to talk.

He wanted to talk about the Killing of George Floyd. He wanted to host a discussion on everything that is going on and he had a specific plan for how he wanted to do it. He said all that in about one minute.

I’ve learned over the past few months not to be surprised by anything and to do my best to welcome everything, (I give myself a B).

It was hard not to be surprised by Paul Simon — but it sure was easy to welcome him!

I said, let me get this straight, you’re in Nairobi, cool, and you want to be part of the conversation about race here in the US? Because if that’s what you’re saying, that’s awesome, and you’re in, you’re on. Please tell us more.

OK, sure, he said. This now should be a world conversation about race. The Kenyan people are all over he world because of our diaspora. I have family in Seattle in the US. I watch the US on CNN every day. We all need to be talking together.

Lots of heart emojis went up from the audience.