As Minneapolis burns and our country falls even more into chaos, a nation watches, a people protest. A stain re-surfaced, previously remedied with “white-washed walls,” unstained with “bleach,” the situation deemed “dealt with,” “resolved,” or “handled.”
As Minneapolis burns…From Los Angeles to Denver to Atlanta, pain, hurt, oppression, tears, turn to ashes.
As Minneapolis burns, tensions rise, peaceful protests turn to violence, police presence turns to unnecessary force, a nation constantly watched is wholeheartedly divided.
As Minneapolis burns the smoke reaches up, blinding us all of what is in front of us. Hundreds of years of injustice, unwanted familial destruction, and words fallen on deaf ears. This smoke blurs our hopes of the future, what it could, what it should, what we hope it might hold.
As Minneapolis burns, I contemplate, I remember George Floyd and all others harmed irrevocably by police, people, and the walls we’ve erected as a nation tangible and metaphorically, yet here I sit.
As Minneapolis burns I myself try to become better informed, present, supportive, yet I can never truly understand…I can not, I am not able to comprehend these walls visible and not, these lifelong barriers erected in a country founded on “one nation,” on freedom “for all,” on “equal rights.”
This is why, as Minneapolis burns and our country falls into chaos amidst seen and unseen threats we still can’t formulate what tomorrow holds. We have not truly walked in the shoes of any who run, read, breathe in fear, but we must try.
However, have we not understood what 400 years of shackles ultimately leads to? Have we not had time to contemplate, to better understand, to help mend a broken country? Internalize the hurts, prepare for the “what-ifs,” the step in the direction of a truly unified “one nation?”
As Minneapolis burns, who can rise up and unify us opposed to dividing? During a time, right now, all around us, aren’t unseen threats enough, can we not open our eyes to what truly can be seen and realize we are all people fighting for our lives, our very way of life, no matter our color?
How does 400 years and more of injustice finally become recognized, validated before it all burns. How can we take a step forward, through the smoke that blinds us, chokes us, makes us lose all sense of who we are?
Today we must remember, today we must finally learn, today we must forge a joint, known, and unified future so when the smoke clears we don’t see a city burning, but rather have resolve to re-build together, remember this day, this week, this year, this life, and never forget.
As Minneapolis re-builds, as our nation re-builds, we must open our eyes to what truly can be seen and realize we are all people fighting for our lives, our very way of life, no matter our color. We must take a step into the flames, the unknown, the past, to begin a new chapter, a new nation, one truly based in equality and freedom to live without fear for our future…
As what we once knew burns, it presents the opportunity to re-build.
Minneapolis is no longer burning, but injustice still persists. The beginnings of change take form, but the real change should come from, and needs to come from us all. It hopefully has already begun, but it can begin right now as you read this, or as you sit down for dinner, or before you go to bed. However, for that change to take root, to take center stage, everyone must continue to see, truly see. I must, you must, we must, take a side, take a stand, and maybe that continues and persists, and leads to change this November.
As intention is clouded by smoke, as understanding is masked by destruction, as life is numbered in breaths, we march forward. Some through books, some through protest, some through statements loud enough so that people finally see, finally hear, finally rise above.
As fellow Americans die,
As emotions rise,
you can hear the cries.
As cities burn,
hopefully we will finally learn.
As the country waits,
we hope we aren’t too late.
As the world seems to pause,
we hope to rise to this very real, seen, cause.
As we speak out…
you can hear the cries,
hopefully we finally learn,
we hope we aren’t too late,
we hope to rise to this very real, seen, cause.
