Race, Justice, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, The Protests, The Riots, The Looting...

For the first time since March, I welcome you all to this edition of Free Byte... although I wish I was doing this on a different topic and under different circumstances.

Over the last week and a half, my eyes and ears have been subjected to news of a man being killed while being detained by police over a phony $20 bill; a woman shot to death while police were looking for someone who didn't even live where she was living, a jogger shot and killed by two men who followed him as being a suspect in a robbery in their neighborhood.

Now, I had intentionally left the glaringly obvious part to each of these instances... the reasoning behind what is currently happening in the United States right now: the man in police custody was black.  The police officers were white.  The young lady shot and killed... she was black.  The police officers who killed her were white.  The jogger was black. The two men who followed him to hid death were white.

During the protests, the cries of "Say His Name" or "Say Her Name" ring out.  So, I will do so here.

#GeorgeFloyd

#BreonnaTaylor

#AhmaudArbery

I could fill these spaces with the names of unarmed, non-threatening black people who died senselessly either by cop or wanna be cop and I could be here still typing.

So why am I doing this post?  I want to reiterate an argument I have had over the last nine days in regard to the protests, the riots, the looting, all of it.

But first, a photo re-emphasize about protesting.  Sure the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States gives us the right to freedom of speech, freedom to peaceably assemble, etc. but when it comes to protesting, sure we can protest, but... let this picture tell you.


So when all of the peaceful options run out, how do we let our voices be heard?  We are being silenced and we're supposed to have a voice.  What good is it when we are silent?  

In the photo collage above, we get the first caption all the time.  So we get together to have a peaceful march. "No, you can't do that."  So our sports figures do a peaceful protest by taking a knee.  "No, you can't do that.  That's disrespectful to our country, our military and our National Anthem."  And on that one, like a broken needle, they miss the point.  Moving onward, our celebrities speak out at the annual awards shows.  "No, you can't do that." Sports figures speak out.  "No, you can't just say that.  Shut up and play."  Sports figures protest without saying a word but by wearing a shirt that says, I Can't Breathe.  "No, you can't do that.  Shut up and play."  More protests, more shutdown.  "No you can't do that."  We even went as far as boycotting.  "No you can't do that.  We need your money as much as we need theirs."

So we've tried everything peacefully.  We've run out of peaceful options.  There are only two options left.  One of them we've had enough of.  The other, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this to 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace three years after his famous I Have a Dream speech.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote:I contend that the cry of "black power" is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.

Over the last four days, there has been protests, there has been riots, there has been looting, and there has been violence.  It has been done violently because we had no other choice.  If you ask me, I will answer you the same as I did when the riots began.  No, I do not condone the violence and the looting.  I do not condone the riots, but when you have no other choice but to go this route, it has become a case of #DoWeHaveYourAttentionNow?  In regard to George Floyd, a fellow forummember said, "Two wrongs do not make right. I don't believe George Floyd would honestly want any of this. He was a Christian man who was trying to put his life back together after making a mistake. He did his time and they couldn't let him have his second chance. They took it away from him."  She's right, but again I say, when we do things peacefully, and we are silenced, we want to be heard.  When we have no choice, we are going to let our collective voices be heard.  I'm not saying that the looters and VIOLENT protestors are right, because deep in my heart, I know better, but when you have no other alternative, you're gonna make some noise and get your voice out there, or you're gonna remain silent.

We look for and cry out for justice for the ones who were wrongfully taken.  We watch some of the white offenders get caught, and treated royally (and by royally, for example, the young man who shot up a church during their bible study and killed nine was caught, given water to drink, even treated to Burger King).  George Floyd was caught with an allegedly fake $20 bill.  He lost his life because a cop put him down, cuffed him and kept a knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, during which time, Floyd called out to his mother (who died two years ago) and then said 15 times over "I can't breathe".  Right now, that cop, or should I now say former cop, Derek Chauvin has been arrested and charged with Murder in the third degree.  Really?  Murder Three?  Why wasn't this charged as Murder One?  Why are the other three cops who stood there and did nothing not charged at all? Where is the justice.

Then comes the argument to end all arguments.  You know the ones with the most notorious hashtags:

#BlackLivesMatter
#AllLivesMatter
#BlueLivesMatter

Ladies and gentlemen to an extent each of these statements can be true unless proven it's not.  Let's look at each one.

#BlueLivesMatter -- Yes, the lives of police matter, but when police go rogue and (wrestling term here) go into business for himself, it's not a true statement.  Here is some common sense mathematics to back up this statement.

You have 1000 "good cops" and 10 "bad cops."  If the 1000 "good cops" does not stand for the law of the land and do nothing about the 10 "bad cops", you will have 1010 BAD COPS!  Remember, it was Edmund Burke who said...

Edmund Burke wrote:The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Now for the two most polarizing statements -- #AllLivesMatter  #BlackLivesMatter

Long before these protests started, long before the riots, the looting and the violence, there was the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.  This statement is truth in its purest form today, especially now.  When this hashtag came out, a counterstatement came out as well in the form of #AllLivesMatter.

I'm gonna make this statement about both and it's gonna ring true.  All Lives Don't Matter Unless #BlackLivesMatter.  Now that doesn't mean that Black Lives are more important than White Lives, Latino Lives, Native American Lives, Asian Lives, etc.  It means that our lives TOGETHER should matter to everyone equally.  Until that happens, the statement #AllLivesMatter is untrue.

So unless you're going to say #BlackLivesMatter and mean it, or #AllLivesMatter and let it end up an empty statement.  Right, there is the need to scream to the heavens that #BlackLivesMatter.  And there is a need to make a lie the truth.  And the only way this can happen is to bring us all together to say #AllLivesMatter.  Then, once it's said, let's not let the words be empty.  Let's put a lot of verbs into the sentence.

When this happens, and only when this happens, will we as a people be able to live in peace because truly #AllLivesMatter

Just Saying.