by. William C. Walker Jr.
As Baltimore literally tears itself apart over just the latest murder victim at the hands of the police. I've been completely overwhelmed by emotion. Part of me is so angry, angry that police continue to kill unarmed black men as if it were deer season. Angry that after peaceful protest the message for change is being lost in a sea of looting & violence. Angry that people would destroy their own community in the name of injustice. But beyond my anger is this overwhelming sadness. Sadness that the steady stream of violence that's being shown in Baltimore overshadows the whole reason for the unrest. Which is that people are fed up with seeing their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers have become an endangered spieces. So while I understand the reason the people of Baltimore are outraged I don't understand the point of destroying your own community.
I just keep thinking about what Martin Luther King Jr and so many others fought for in the Civil Rights era. It took true courage & conviction to protest in a non-violent way. Simply peacefully marching led to many facing the threat of and actual death. So while I see what's taking place in Baltimore it just sends me into a tailspin of feelings like title of this post. Again I get the anger of what happened to Freddy Gray. What I don't get is the benefit of setting businesses & cars on fire? What I don't get is how looting & assaulting the press or bystanders further the cause for change? It makes me sad that the neighborhood that will feel the effects of this damage is your neighborhood. It's our people who're are losing jobs and suffering property damage. You burning down a CVS isn't hurting the police or those in power, if anything it almost makes them feel justified. WHICH MAKES MY HEAD HURT EVEN MORE. There's no justification for the death of unarmed men! I would understand if you were marching through city hall and wrecking every police station on the way. I wouldn't agree with it nor condone it, it kind of defeats the purpose to me to meet violence with violence. But at least that would make sense to me.
What bothers me even more is the reaction from those that dismiss what those in the Civil Rights era did. The examples of the peaceful protests after Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and on and on, were cited as examples of how peace is ineffective. Do we even understand how long those men and women of the Civil Rights fought for change? It didn't happen overnight and the reality is that the fight is still ongoing. We're barely past 5 decades from the march on Washington, DC. I keep feeling like those who have been fighting this battle long before the first fire was lit in Baltimore, their voices have been drowned out by a sea of chaos. Black people are angry that it's been made okay to kill us for no reason, we're sad because we're losing loved ones, and we're confused because no one's being brought to justice. Just in the case of Freddy Gray a man who was arrested by police, walking and healthy when arrested one hour later is in a coma after 80 % of his spine was severed. Yet do you expect the police to meet swift justice or even interrogation as to what took place? No they actually get 10 DAYS to get their story straight. Do you even hear about this or is it too important to see about Bruce Jenner's personal life decision? It makes sense to me why people would be fed up and angry. No matter how much that makes sense to me I'll never understand the destruction of our own. I want justice every black man woman and child wants the madness to stop. It's just a matter of how do we get there? Will we continue to rally and push for justice learning from those that fought and died for us, or will we give in to our anger and lash out at everything that moves even our own? We all want change we all want justice, but the more I see in Baltimore the more I just feel angry, sad, and confused.
