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Right after the breaking news flash came across my computer screen, I just sat there in numbness but not in disbelief. Mass shootings continued to happen over and over, and those politicians stuck on stupid and a stone heart still hold on to their 2nd amendment rights. The world has gone cruel and vicious and insane, and I just want it to stop! So does millions of other decent, law abiding, hard-working, and grateful human beings living in this democratic country ‘they’ are trying desperately and irrationally to destroy. As Dr. Bravada Garrett Akinsanya, founder and CEO of The African American Child Wellness Institute often states as co-host of ‘The Healing Circle’ presented by ‘Conversations with Al McFarlane’ every Friday that when ‘they’ continue trying to destroy our humanity, and when those mentally impaired and filled with a hatred taught and imbedded in their environment, they also destroy a portion of their own humanity, life being, and true purpose on this earth.
Immediately reaching out to my daughters, it reminded me of the silence, fear, anger, and disgust the three of us shared two years ago when the world heard and saw a shocking murder on a Minneapolis street corner and again on January 6th, 2021 at the Capitol. No one knew what to say, and I knew better than to ask why. All we could was pray. Another 18-year-old had just slaughtered 18 children and 3 adults for reasons we might never know. In my ‘winter season’, I didn’t want to hurt this badly anymore. On that same warm and sunny day, parents and significant others waited in angst wondering if their child’s name or adult partner had been listed among the innocent and unfortunate victims. They never saw death walk through their classroom doors.
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut came into office a year after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. He refused to hold back his anger, agony, and grief. “I’m getting on my hands and knees begging you to find a path forward to help you see the urgency of federal gun control reform. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that makes this less likely. What are we doing, I ask? No other place in the world does this happen! Our children are traumatized, and they have every right to be. I’m asking you again, why did you bother to campaign, get elected, and do nothing? We’re making a choice to let this end game keep happening over and over again.” ‘Swing the t.v. cameras around so we can see the expressions on the chamber occupants’ faces, I thought. I surmise some diehards didn’t feel an ounce of emotions. Their callousness, abuse of power and authority, and their disregard for humanity attributed to humankind of all hues and backgrounds appears to remain intact. But a new wave of demands from disenfranchised Black and other BIPOC communities will most assuredly disrupt the status quo, Minnesota Senator Bobby Joe Champion, Democrat representing District 59 which includes part of downtown and North Minneapolis echoes a similar appeal to the governing leadership at the local, county, and state levels. ‘What are ‘they’ doing to close the subpar gaps in education, black women mortality rates, chemical dependency, opportunities in higher education, fulfilling dreams, and providing resources for state-of-the-art technological infrastructure and support for non-profits like Turning Point Inc. and others that are doing great work. There’s on-going violence in our communities attributed to continued police brutality and often victims’ of their own neighbors. What are ‘you’ going to do?
“We have to broaden the discussions. George Floyd’s televised execution and the sentences handed down on the murderer, Derek Chauvin was a catalyst for obvious and necessary major changes leading to genuinely transformational opportunities and possibilities. Let’s talk about preventive health care options including dental, career planning, training, and jobs providing livable wages and merit promotions. I believe some day George Floyd’s children will know for sure that their father’s life mattered.”
An alarm sounded months ago when young children were gunned down in their own neighborhoods, and decades ago when the American stain of white supremacy and patriarchy took control. ‘Their’ refusal to recognize power sharing has divided the country, heightened the awareness of Black-white disparities, and called for courageous demands of leadership and legislatures across the country to ‘do the right thing’. Stop trying to get your power by denying the deserved rights of the powerless. So called allies want to do things their way, with strategies not applicable to Black culture and needs. Ironically, rural and Black American communities have a lot in common. They have no broadband. We have broadband but no access which really showed up during the pandemic and lockdowns.”
Champion believes residents of the Twin Cites can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, as the old adage goes. Despite the historical and intentional disinvestment in the Black and other BIPOC communities, the young Senator is up for the fight, especially around the urgency of housing. He recalls learning about the 1963 Children’s Crusade where hundreds of school students in Birmingham, Alabama suffered the wrath of the head of police, Bull Connor. The appalling gall and malice exposed to the public when fire hoses and police dogs were used on the children set the stage for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
“It just might take a similar kind of courageous move to get ‘their’ attention. Another courageous move is to understand the seriousness of the times we are in. Know that circumstances will not improve until those disenfranchised finally decide that taking a different direction ‘puts us at the table, and not just on the menu. That includes the philanthropic foundations and corporations that tend to support their allies and friends, and not those who really need a couple rays of sunshine in their lives.
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