Call It What It Is

 “Somebody’s been murdering our people and it’s gone on far too long. We won’t be silent anymore!” Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

Finally there’s the word: murder. This wasn’t a killing. This wasn’t a dreadful accident. It has been compared to a modern day lynching. So let’s call it what it is: murder.

I read a lot of mysteries and in one of my favorites by Agatha Christie, Miss Marple says that it is rare to have a witness to a murder. Friends, we as a nation and maybe as a world have witnessed a murder. Hundreds of thousands of witnesses thanks to video and modern media. And so far, the murderer has been fired. Just fired. "Sorry, Buddy. You can’t work here any more."

I sit in my white privileged quarantine and feel totally helpless. All I can hope is that for now it is enough that I not keep silent any longer. A man was murdered, cruelly, obscenely and deliberately murdered and we were all witnesses and there must be an accounting. It must start here and stop here. Let’s honor George Floyd by making his the last.