There might have been a time you could do a push-up or a pull-up. That your arm muscles could lift your own weight. But that ain’t today, and the weight is on your back and neck. With every exhalation, your ribs retreat, and the continued pressure of someone else’s weight means less air than the last breath. Having your hands pulled behind your back created strain on your shoulders. Now this, unending weight as several gravities worth crush your ribs and sharp stabbing pain punctuates every gasp for life until your last words are “I can’t breathe.”
Once upon a time Minnesota stood up for a man named Dred Scott. Thousands of its sons marched to Gettysburg in the cause of freedom for all. But to paraphrase comedian Doug Stanhoppe, “We weren’t there.” Minnesotans of today don’t get to rest on the laurels of yesterday’s noble efforts. We will have to make our own stand for justice.
There are people in our country who seek a civil war. There are powers outside that fan those flames because it furthers their interest to weaken the United States of America. And there are people who believe what they fear. Over two hundred rioters were arrested in Minneapolis who turned out to be out of state white supremacists. People identified a cop as the man smashing the Autozone. Yet today, somebody driven by fear shared the faked Black Lives Matters are gonna kill us all image. Because they bought into what the haters were selling.
What the fuck is wrong with you people?
United we stand.
Many things are wrong in our country. One of them is police immunity from consequences and disproportionate use of force against people of color. We all know rioting is wrong, and that it is caused by a fraction of the protesters and that in many cases this weekend, it is posers instigating violence. If we keep falling for these provocateurs, there is only one outcome.
Divided we fall.