Good Night Baltimore

It's hard to know where to start when it comes to Baltimore, Ferguson, etc. etc. All I can muster is sadness, not even anger. I'm truly wondering how much it will take for a real change in policing and those who are supposed to "serve and protect." Now, it is not an unknown fact that communities of color have not experienced such service or protection for generations as racism continues to infect institutions and individuals. There has been minimal progress in diversifying the police force across the US, which crops up in the news now and again when there is a discrimination lawsuit of some sort.

I liken this to lynching in the US in that it took nearly ninety years and nearly 4,000 African-American victims before laws were changed in the US. It's disheartening to think it may take just as long before institutional change is made. And even when it does change we continue to struggle with the realities of racism that affect all of our lives and to the detriment to our society as a whole.

Truly, how much longer must we wait as more Black lives are brutalized, oppressed and murdered on a near daily basis? I'm afraid much too long and much too late for those who have died and will die in the days, weeks and months to come simply because of the color of their skin.


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