George Floyd

[vmax]

I couldn't write about his brutal and senseless murder when it first happened. His final words broke my heart, shocked me and tore me up. 

Racism, in any way that it is expressed, is so ugly, nasty and unclean. Hate is so brutally harmful in thought, word and deed. If anybody doesn't think that this is so, then watch the video and hear his final pleas. Try to imagine that George was your son. 

That was a physical manifestation. What about the "invisible scaring?" What about the daily mental, emotional and spiritual scars it leaves on black children and their families. On their hopes and dreams? A life long force in the American society beating you down....every day.

How do you change the consciousness of a nation and raise it up? Hundreds of years of racism in the USA and thousands of years on this whole planet. Since man began recording history. I've lived through a part of this history having grown up in the 60's. Some hope and light began to shine and yet here we are...2020....and it feels like little change has been made. That doesn't mean to quit or give up.

It took me a long time to see that "What I do to you, I do to me." In general, as a people, or "We the People," can't see that we are all connected.....that we are one and the same...that all life is sacred. I believe that many people do see, think and believe this. Nevertheless, racism, a powerful, negative force of evil, continues to thrive.

It is necessary to have discussions on this and to raise our awareness. It is necessary to create constructive, loving solutions.  Racism is rooted so deep. Awareness can lead to change, one person at a time, if the change happens in your innermost self. Than it will be expressed in your actions...in thought, word and deed. The solution is spiritual in nature. It's an"inside job" for all of us.

This has been hard for me to write because I am far from perfect. I look at myself and feel, for my part, that I can and must do better. Like all of you, I am trying to grow and evolve into a better person. A brighter light. Here we are in this thing called life, which is difficult enough as it is. Why make it harder? Why not live it together? Take it on together. 

For George and his family I have no words. Only the feeling of love and empathy in your grief.

 

[oldno82]

Beautifully written. You've captured what I've wanted to say but haven't been able to be so eloquent.

I grew up in the 50's and  60's. As bad as racism is today it was even more horrid and common back then. I am ashamed of things I said, saw, and felt back then. I too am trying to evolve though it's late in life for me now there is always room for growth and truth. 

It's a bitter pill to swallow but while we have made progress on overt racism in this country I believe it exists still very deeply when whites are alone together in many cases. There's been progress but I often think of how difficult in must be in this country to grow up black. The covert racism (that which exists in the mind) is just about as bad as it was when I was a child. You don't see as much overt racism because most of it goes on behind closed doors or walls. 

Now we need to do more to cleanse our minds.

 

[papasmurfbell]

We need to do what the German's have done in their education system.  We need to teach what this country has done to innocent ppl in brutal unflinching detail starting in ES through HS graduation.  This is a curriculum that needs to be put together by the Dept of Ed and is a requirement for federal funds.

[vmax]

A couple of quotes this morning.....

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
― Robert F. Kennedy

“Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren't any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn't be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life's challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person. ”
― R. Buckminster Fuller