Giana Floyd, George Floyd’s daughter
From now on 4/20 will live on not just as a day to celebrate pot but as a day to remember that a murderous cop was held to account.
I cried when I heard that the jury found Chauvin guilty on all three counts. A choking ugly cry. Gasping.
While I know this is not the end of the war (Al Sharpton) and that the verdict was only possible because it was captured on video, seen the world over, followed by a year of protests and the collapse of the blue wall (Jason Johnson), I want to breathe the relief of a decision well made.
Yes. Yes we get how broken we are that the outcome was not certain here. But let me exhale with gratitude.
Thank you jurors! Thank you “bouquet of humanity” aka witnesses who took the stand! Thank you remarkable prosecution team! Thank you protestors! Thank you cops who took the stand and spoke the truth!
Tomorrow I will lament the fifteen year old girl who was shot yesterday. Tomorrow I will share my outrage at how swiftly Republicans are seeking to outlaw filming police and protests but today: relief.
I shared this 53 second video over on Instagram but I’ll share it here, too. Synchronicity turned the Vogue model’s outstretched arms into something reminiscent of a prone, injured body as the day went on. Unintended but fitting.
We all must be willing to witness. Somehow, “celebrating” 420 didn’t feel right to me. The verdict was a sober occasion. Party can wait.
I only meant to acknowledge the relief at a decision well made. It so easily could have gone the other way.
Exhale in gratitude…
Inhale for the work ahead:
This is just the beginning in a long road toward justice but as with every journey, the path begins with the first universal step, and I do mean universal, because it will take each and every one of us who witnessed, and spoke truth to power (as our jurors and witnesses did )…
each and every one of us who showed up…
each and everyone of us who marched together…
each and everyone of us who shared heartfelt thoughts and wrote and sent those thoughts to our leaders…
each and everyone of us who turned to our neighbors, our communities and began the conversation…
each and everyone of us who lived our anguish and resolved to hold onto hope…
WE are ALL on this road, TOGETHER: our map’s direction, our solidarity.
May I quote this comment later in the week? Thank you Marti for speaking to the moment and with so much humanity.
Yes and thank you Dee for brining it all here.
Dee~ As Deb said, we had the ‘relief’ conversation here. It took so many stars to align to get to that verdict and yet the killing continues. An important first step for sure and Dee, you always state it and show it (through art) so well. I was taken aback by how gently he was handcuffed and led out, especially in comparison with how George Floyd was handled. New days, may they become better.
Gentle handling calls to mind the burgers bought for Roof after he killed nine in Charleston, doesn’t it? And it is coming out now that police have contributed to Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense fund! Pelosi really stuck her foot in it yesterday by using the word “sacrificed” as if this horrible set of events was a mannered ritual with conscious choices being made, but I do like to think that Mr. Floyd’s daughter was right when she said that her ‘daddy changed the world.’ “New days,” as you say. “May they become better.”
the quote…”bouquet of humanity”…where is that from?
it is what lifts me in this moment…bouquet of humanity….i want to be part of the bouquet
of Humanity….to find all the ways i can. The NYT article by Adam Grant….Languishing….
Yesterday….sitting there, rigid, holding the phone outside in a garden….and hearing
the verdict…3! all 3!!!! and the one who doesn’t know if she can cry, CRIED such a
rush of the Everything that it has been.
back to bouquet….i want to give a bouquet to Darnella, to little Gianna, to ALL of Us…
That we have what it takes to say NO to Comfortably Numb,
Thank you, Dee, for always being here at your House, saying your Truth from your
best Heart, over and over….
always a place i know i can come to find the familiarity of that in a recent world that
has felt more and more foreign and uncaring. Thank You.
Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison used the term “bouquet of humanity” in his remarks to the press yesterday. He was quoting prosecuting attorney Jerry Blackwell. In addition to the many meaningful things the AG said yesterday, I was moved by how he went out of his way to thank everybody he could by name.
i have a serious crush on Blackwell. i read this morning that he “enjoys farming,
beekeeping and meditation.
i’m happy it is his quote. thanks for knowing that.
His closing was incredible.
💙💕🧡
(((Dee))) is it true that one in a thousand black men in the US will be killed by police? (a question one of my customers asked yesterday)
I think that number is high. Couldn’t easily find a percentage online this morning. Significantly, tho, from what I’m reading — no Black man in America feels safe when a cop pulls him over. I did read that Black (men?) are killed 2x more often by police than white men.
The imprisonment rates are shocking : state prisons incarcerate Black men at 5x the rate of whites. In five states that jumps to 10x. In twelve states more than half the prison population is Black. In eleven states one out of every twenty adult Black man is in jail. In Oklahoma, it’s one in fifteen.
The prison figures comes from sentencingproject . Com.
(((Dee))) that number came up in conversation with one of my gardening customers, her son’s partner is an Aboriginal policeman here in Sydney, she prefaced the quote with being unsure of the source. There is so much work to do for social justice here in Australia too.
I have a terrible times keeping track of numbers. Your friend was utterly correct to guess that the number would be shocking. I’ll keep my eye out and see if I can come up with something. I mostly know about Australia’s race issue from really good Acorn TV.