Countries Sewn From Fabric Woven By Forced Hands...

Hi.

This has been a week, hasn't it?

A week wherein we witnessed police finally getting charged for the murder of George Floyd.

A week wherein in the midst of demonstrations and peaceful protests to stand up against, and try to bring an end to police brutality, we see a 75-year-old man pushed to the ground by the police and left, as the police responsible just walk on by. They left him, laying on the sidewalk, with his head bleeding, motionless. A man who is now in hospital, his condition listed as serious, but stable. 

And then they lied, saying "he tripped and fell." That's disgusting.

A week where in the midst of demonstrations, peaceful crowds are charged upon, tear-gassed, and shot with rubber bullets, then pushed and pummeled to the side for President Biff. This, to clear his path to a church he attends only when his title requires, so he could get a photo op. It's so telling that it never even occurred to him to stop and talk to the protesters. To listen to them. He once again stomped, both literally and figuratively, all over an opportunity to be an actual human being, all for the sole purpose of puffing himself up. 

A week wherein Nations around the world marched their own streets, shining more light on the racism that not only plagues America but permeates deeply everywhere upon the globe. 

A week of taking a long hard look in each of our own national mirrors and seeing how far we all have yet to go.

I think what I find most disturbing and most heartbreaking, is the fact that in order for there to be the need for demonstrations, marches, and protests, opposition to the ideals driving the protests needs to exist. 

All that any of these marches are asking for is equality. 

How and why is there opposition to equality?

People should not have to beg for their lives at the hands of the people whose literal job is to protect and serve them. 

Too many countries are sewn from fabric woven by forced hands.

We can't change history. But we do need to look at it. Learn it. All of it. Not the sanitized version that helps us sleep better, the truth. We need to do a better job of teaching it to our children. We need to do a much better job of acknowledging it as adults.

We can't change history, but we can change the trajectory of our future. 

It all begins in our own households. In our conversations. It then needs to make its way through our neighbourhoods, through our towns, cities, municipalities, and beyond.

I long for a world where the need to march the streets in and of itself becomes something for the history books. My wish for my grandbabies and their grandbabies is that this proves to become the turning point they read about in their history books. 

For now, we are in it. In the thick of it, the muck of it.

We need to do better, and there is absolutely nothing stopping us from doing just that. 

Opposition to equality is not always obvious, that's how it has survived, how it has flourished. Those who perceive equality as a threat have learned over time that wearing it blatantly on their sleeves, letting the venom drip unchecked from their tongues garnishes backlash. So they speak in the language of dog whistles. Instead of the white hoods, they wrap themselves in the flag trying to confuse patriotism and racism, trying to meld them together somehow. 

True patriots aren't confused.

Opposition to equality wields its privilege like a sledgehammer. It threatens to bring the security of systemic racism to the doorstep of people having barbeques, driving delivery trucks, birdwatching, shopping, hanging out at pools, jogging, or just having the audacity to be anywhere at all. 

We need to do better and there is absolutely nothing stopping us from doing just that.

Let's make this, let's allow this to be the time in history we began to get it right. 

As we march, let's not forget that Covid-19 is not taking a break. Please be safe.

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May we march in peace so that everyone can walk in peace.

May we never stop until all acts of inequality cease.

May we actively learn, actively listen, actively change, actively see what's always been in plain sight.

May we finally, put our history, our humanity on a path to getting it right.

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