Is This 1968 All Over Again?

I feel like I’ve just awakened from a coma. It must be 1968.

We’ve got a vibrant manned space program underway (congratulations NASA and SpaceX!) and civil unrest spreading like wildfire across the U.S.

I see a vacuum of leadership in the White House and an agitator using Twitter to inspire the worst in us. We’re being mocked by other nations like China and Iran: “I can’t breathe” they are writing.

Where are we today in the U.S.? Sadly:

• 40 million people in the US are unemployed
• There continues to be tremendous and widening income and wealth inequality
• 100,000+ people dead from COVID-19 pandemic thus far
• Black men are still be killed by white cops; few convictions have occurred
• I see the police attacking the press and some protestors with impunity.

A lot of the “protestors” aren’t protesting–they are trying to sneak under the cover of the peaceful protestors. The looters are opportunists. If they wanted to peacefully protest the murder of George Floyd, they wouldn’t be looting.

Thanks to the bravery and courage of a 17-year-old girl, I witnessed something I never wanted to see: a black man being murdered by a white police officer.

The cop had a smug, arrogant look on his face that I will never forget. As he knelt on George Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes, he had his left hand in his pants pocket to let everyone know he wasn’t struggling to control Mr. Floyd. He knew what he was doing and seemed to be enjoying it. I wonder if that smug look was knocked off his face when he was arrested and led off to jail? We didn’t get to see that.

I couldn’t watch the whole video. It’s too painful. I never dreamt that 3 other police officers would stand by watching it happen and do not one damn thing to stop it. That makes them accomplices to murder.

Are people furious about what they saw? You bet. I’m sheltering in place due to COVID-19 but I’m writing to let you know about the social injustice I witnessed and the visceral reaction I feel. This happens too often in America. America needs to get serious about fixing this. It starts with leadership in the White House.

Thought for the week:

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.