XII: Floyd

Being a bystander is just being another part of the problem. There’s no space, no time, and no need for inaction in a world where the media controls justice more than the policing forces of our world.

Is it not sad that violent protests operate as a means for shifting the perspective of the enforcers, the proponents, and the so-called advocates for justice? Is it not sad that a media storm — spanning our endless reach of social media — was necessary to effect change?

I want to believe that peace can drive away violence. I want to believe that George Floyd will be the turning point — the last crack in the dam built up by years of bribes, hate, apathy. Lies.

And I want to believe that you want to believe that, too.

“The way things have been done” needs to end. If there’s a lack of funding towards our social policies — a neglect for equality, for equity, for justice — we need to stop patching the walls with bandaids. We need to rebuild the whole thing.

Remember this: George Floyd could not breathe. Do we live in a world where saying this eleven times isn’t enough?

To the racists, to those that so blindly hate: will oppression never listen to the pleading voice? Will racism clamber on, scratching and clawing through the ranks of the innocent?r

This, my friends, is up to us. How we respond to these times is a question not answerable only by the leaders of today. This is a duty that the day and age charges us all with.

Sign a petition. Speak as the voice for those who will never have one. Be the difference.