I refrained from writing posts like this for a long time. Partly because I didn’t want to seem cliché or trendy. Mostly because it hurts. Hurts to my core.
As I take in the images of America right now, I feel lost and helpless. Confused. More than anything, I am angry.
So I will fight with the only weapon I know I have: my words.
Another black person has died senselessly in police custody. Someone’s son. Someone’s father. Gone. Over presumption. Discrimination. Or carelessness.
Protests are everywhere. People are angry. America is burning.
I am burning on the inside too. I feel it creeping up like a slow burn. Seething. A fire that may not be able to be quenched. I fear I may combust.
I feel the need to fight. To scream, run, throw something. I don’t fault the ones destroying buildings and police cars. I don’t agree with it but something in me doesn’t feel bad at all.
My anger says, burn it all down. And perhaps from the ashes, a new America will emerge.
We’ve seen the cracks in our nation in the past few months become more visible than ever. The faults and flaws in our leaders are well known.
We are hurting now. Lashing out. For once, I can almost understand why people would choose violence and chaos over peace.
The straw has finally broken the camel’s back. This straw is heavy and deep-seated. This straw is pain. Pain carried for hundreds of years. Anger passed on through generations of oppression.
This pain is dangerous, contagious. This pain is fire and fire is catching.
But if we’re not careful it will burn down everything in its path. Even the freedom, liberty, and progress we so desperately crave and fight for.
Violence will never be the answer. Violence only begets more violence, but was peace too silent? Eventually we would grow tired of our cries falling on deaf ears.
Racism has torn our country apart for far too long. A knee has been on the neck of the African American community for centuries. Stifling us. Suffocating us.
Enough is enough.
George. Ahmaud. Breonna.
Eric. Sandra. Trayvon. Tamir. Michael. Emmett. We know the list goes on. Too many to count.
Their names will not be forgotten. Innocent lives taken will not be for nothing.
Change is coming. We may not know how or when.
One thing is for certain: There is no turning back now. Now they see us. Now they hear us.
Feel the heat. Inhale the smoke.
America is burning.
May God heal and help us all.
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Click to Pin and share on Pinterest!
Comments