STEADFAST: THE END OF RACISM

I was scrolling through digital photos today, and found a few from a kayaking day on the Columbia River. Part of Government Island has been used to place sand dredged out of the navigation channel, and the photo below is a pile of dredge sand weathered by water and wind. This photo reminded me of another set of images, so I searched my thousands of photos and found them.  

The photos below are from a trip to Washington D.C. a few years ago. I can't help but see these in the context of the dredge sand, in terms of the materials and the obvious processes involved. 

The monument to Martin Luther King, Jr. is based on the line in his I Have a Dream speech: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." Although the monument is granite, it has the texture of sandstone. To me, Reverend King is emerging from a mountain, a mountain being weathered by buffeting winds and rain eroding away the softer rock and leaving a solid stone, a stone of hope, a stone of steadfast resolve. The expression on King's face, the grip of his hands on his arms crossed over his chest, his body language screams out to the elements "blow, scour, do your best, oh winds of oppression, I am steadfast in my resolve to prevail; we shall overcome some day." 

And here, in the year 2020, that change is close, and it might be that Rev. King will be free of the stone that restrains him, at last. 

The shameful truth of America is that Black Americans are routinely killed by police. In 2020, three high profile killings have broken the dam holding back the rage of the majority of Americans: Ahmaud Arbery, killed in February by vigilantes, including a former policeman, in Georgia for jogging while black; Breonna Taylor, killed during March by police in Kentucky for sleeping in her own home while black; and George Floyd, executed in public during May by a policeman who kneeled on Mr. Floyd's neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds at which time Mr. Floyd died, and then another 2 minutes and 53 seconds beyond his death, for the crime of being black. 

Hundreds of thousands of people in America and around the world have taken to the streets to protest this long history of systemic racism in America. There have been many periods of demonstrations and protests over many decades in America, but this time is palpably different. This time people of every demographic are in the streets. Tens of thousands in America's large cities, hundreds or thousands in the small cities and rural towns of America, many of those predominantly white. Young and old, parents and children, students and retired people - all in the streets to protest and to express the rage that fills us all. Enough! Enough! Enough! 

The first step in what I'm hopefully calling the American Revolution of 2020 is to rethink and restructure policing in America. I've heard people say that there are some good cops in America; I want to say that most cops in America are "good cops," and also that there are some "bad cops" in America. The vast majority of men and women who work as police officers entered their profession to serve and protect their communities. The larger issue is the systemic racism in American policing, a system that allows bad cops to be cops, and that protects those bad cops when they do bad things, including killing Black Americans. Police in America have become over-militarized. Police culture in America sometimes promotes violence and machoism and a fraternal culture of "protect our own." These can and must be changed by citizens, including those who are police officers. 

It is also true that police are typically tasked with things that they are not prepared and should not be asked to do, such as responding to people having mental health issues, dealing with people who have alcohol and drug issues, and responding to complaints about homeless people. There are solutions for this, and there are models for making the needed changes, such as in Camden, NJ and Compton, CA. 

The vast majority of police officers in America were appalled and ashamed by the public execution of George Floyd by a callous and bigoted policeman. The police system is the problem, from recruitment, through training, to protecting bad cops. The system needs to be retooled from the ground up, and many local, state and federal leaders agree, as do many in police leadership. 

Together, we can make this change, we can be the change. We start with policing in America, and we keep going, because everything in society is connected to everything else. People understand this. Even politicians understand this, if they are people who think. 

Stand firm. Be steadfast. The winds of oppression are changing direction; the winds of justice and freedom are blowing across America. 

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