Image from www.cogic.org
My heart has been hurt by the killings of African-amercian men in the United states by the police. It is heart breaking to watch these events play out on my tv screen in London. After the news outlets move on to the next news item what happens to these families. Their sense of injustice, pain and lack of answers must be excruciating.
Yes all lives matter in theory but when I look at the realty of that statement all lives do not appear not to matter. The equality and justice for all is not being reflected. The value of the lives of some citizens appears to be of higher value if you belong to a particular community and lower if you belong to another.
Earlier this year I visited Macon in Georgia and as I looked at the buildings and streets that James Brown, Otis Reading and Little Richard visited I tried to imagine what it must have been like for them living and breathing in air filled with segregation.
Yes great progress has been made in so many areas but the fundamentals of living in a society that stand equality and justice for all is still a distant dream. Watching the news reports in 2016 has not changed since the news reports of early 1960’s. Its the same fifty plus years on. Why is it the same? its the same because we have a group of people still fighting for their right to be heard and understood by the country they live in. They are not being heard and understood. Understanding will only start to come when the shoe is placed on the foot of those who walk by in silence and and turn their heads and hearts away as if it not happening.
Yes all lives matter but some lives more than others are being lost in an environment that’s judges based on skin colour. RIP to all those who lost their lives in situations where their lives did not matter.
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Great commentary, Sis Jen for those far removed from the heat of hurt, receipt of racism, counter racism; this was a word for them.