My heart is hurting…
As I continue to process the situation on the streets of the United States of America the more I come to conclusion that there is no conclusion. The situation with George Floyd has very little to do with this individual murder of a black man on the streets of the United States of America and has everything to do with the many men and women of color that suffered the same fate and did not receive the justice they deserved.
Instead of coming together as a nation and facing the problem we chose to play public jurors and say these things happened for this reason or that happened for this reason and went about our daily lives while the anger built up to the point we are at now. Thousands of Americans are taking the streets to demand that situations like this never happen again.
Before we can talk about justice for George Floyd and situations like this never happening again we have to take a long hard look at how we are choosing to live as a society.
Income inequality is at an all time high. Everyone is feeling this and some are feeling it more than others.
Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Are you tired of the cost of everything going up while your paycheck remains the same? Are you tired of having very little time to spend with your family?
While folks in the middle are still able to live comfortably within these dynamics others are forced to skip meals so their children can eat or work two or three jobs to keep up with rent in an economy that allows the cost of living to rise while paychecks have remained stagnant. These conditions on top of people of color living in fear that today could be the day their lives are taken by law enforcement has created a powder keg that is exploding in front of our eyes.
Do I condone the destruction of public and private property? Absolutely not. While I could argue about a symptom of the problem I would rather work together to find solutions. We can begin finding these solutions by not going about our daily lives when this “blows over” I don’t expect to unrest to stop when these officers are convicted. The unrest will end when our government takes this seriously and creates reform.
With COVID-19 creating the “new normal” now is the time for EVERYONE to stand up for their fellow man, woman and child. Standing up is more than everyone coming together to publicly discuss how this murder wrong. Standing up is admitting that there is a bigger problem happening. The system has cracks.
Violence creates more violence. Ignoring problems only make things worse. Making excuses only delays the inevitable.
Remember these things in your next conversation with your family and neighbors and take the time to go beyond the headlines of “mayhem in the streets” and understand that these people of every race, gender, socio economic class, sexual orientation and religion protesting in the streets have realized that their peaceful protests have only been ignored to maintain the status quo.
The status quo has failed us with COVID-19 just as much as it has failed us for 400 years coming to grips with race relations int he United States of America.
Is this the end of our Republic? If we continue to be reactionary instead of getting off our asses to come to terms with the problem; a mixture of the virus that has already killed 100,000 in the United States of America and violence escalating will be the destruction of the longest experiment in Democracy the world has ever witnessed. #thechoiceisyours #georgefloyd #georgefloydwasmurdered #thisisamerica #thenewnormal #race #racerelations #policebrutality