We The People watched in horror while George Floyd was murdered before our eyes from multiple camera angles and with obvious malice. 8 minutes and 46 seconds that will forever change how we see 2020. The arrogant expression of the man responsible for his death, wearing the uniform of one sworn to serve and protect, dumps fuel on a fire that’s raged for centuries. How many more black Americans must die at the hands of the Mostly White State before we say enough? No more.
The day after this tragic scene played out over and over on social media and cable news, protests erupted across the country in cities both big and small. Predictably, the police response was overblown from word one and simply forced peaceful protests into a more desperate tone and tenor, one inflamed even further by Alt Reich forces intent on starting a race war in America by hiding among the protesters while instigating chaos and violence. Police responded accordingly, despite the evidence that the “rioters” and the protesters were mostly two different groups with vastly different tactics and strategies.
The Divided States of America have finally united in protesting this tragedy of the commons. We rediscovered the shared humanity at the center of our stories. We cried out for our mothers in response to George Floyd’s desperate pleas for his own. We The People demanded justice across demographics. We marched in our multitudes. Buildings burned. Statues came down. Law enforcement responded with brute force, a supreme irony that launched a thousand memes and became calls to “defund” police departments across the nation. What they really meant was reallocate their outsized budgets toward more socially responsive and effective measures of public safety. A curtailed mission with higher and inviolate standards is sure to become the norm.
Our outrage went global. Cities around the world erupted in protest over George’s murder and looked toward righting the wrongs in their own countries. This fight for justice is now the penultimate battle for the soul of the human race before the Climate Crisis makes our current trials look like training camp. This is our final turning point toward transcendence or extinction. Given the response so far from most humans, I am way more than cautiously optimistic.
