Because some people just don't get it

I am hesitant to write this, but also feel silence is complicity.

Black Lives Matter.  That is a simple statement.  It is also undeniable.  Yet when it became the name of an organization, it became an issue for some.  We started seeing "Blue Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter" as almost retorts.

I am not a member of the Black Lives Matter Network.  I am not involved with their organization.  I do not speak for them.  I simply feel that their name is a powerful message in itself and that the responses to it and indicative of the need for the organization.

First of all, no one has ever really questioned if "Blue Lives Matter".  When a police officer is killed in the line of duty, streets are named after them, parades are held.  Murdering a police officer is a capital felony in many states.  Our popular culture is fascinated with law enforcement.  We believe law enforcement is a dangerous job.  In truth, taxi drivers are more likely to get shot than police officers while on the job and significantly more likely to do on the job period.  I am not going to belittle what law enforcement personnel do, their lives matter and we all know that.

Let me also state that in no rational world view are the lives of law enforcement personnel at odds with the people they serve and protect.  The use of deadly force should always be investigated simply because all homicides should be investigated.  Let me further state that the Black Lives Matter organization was created in response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.  This heinous act was perpetrated by George Zimmerman, an insurance underwriter at the time.

On the other hand, we have individuals that seem to feel that we live in a post-racism society.  Dreaming of such a society is laudable.  Working towards such a society is a worthy endeavor.  But pretending we live in one is unconscionable.  If we filter out extremists, Gallup polls will still reveal that our opinions on guilt and innocence are shaped by the racial stereotypes that are a part of our culture.  The truth is that the deaths of certain members of our society are investigated with all the resources available and those found guilty are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  Obviously, no resource is unlimited, but no one can deny that our disparities and that those disparities align with demographics.

And thus we reach the point where there is a need for the phrase "Black Lives Matter".  Human beings destroy one another far too often.  The purpose of any system of justice is to evaluate guilt or fault and mete out an appropriate response.  What has happened time and again is that the justice system in this country has found individuals free of guilt despite significant evidence to the contrary.  It is not the tragic event, it is the response to the tragic event that is of concern.  In the last few years, video has been captured of some of these tragic events.  This has simply brought further light to an existing problem.

The simple fact is that the justice system in this country is not just.  This is not simply variations in media coverage.  That is a symptom, not a cause.  In the end, in dozens of cases that caught national attention and in hundreds of cases that didn't, the color of a persons skin was inseparable from the case.  

As long as any human being can fire multiple shots into the back of another human being and not be charged with and convicted of murder or manslaughter, there will be a need to stand up.  We can pretend that such an event does not happen.  We can pretend that such events happen equally across all demographics.  We can pretend that there are extenuating circumstances each and every time it happens.  

Or. we can stop pretending and start trying to fix something that has been broken for far too long.

Taking nails out of walls

It isn't the boxes.  It isn't paint and joint compound.  It isn't leases or mortgages or contracts.  It isn't calling in favors or offering people pizza and beer to carry stuff.  It isn't sitting on the floor, ordering delivery or wondering where the plates are.  I have memories of all of these things from my moves and the moves of others, but they are not what I think of when I think of moving.

It's taking nails, screws, hooks, and fasteners out of walls.  From dorm rooms, to apartments, to offices, to houses, looking around for the hardware that was used to hang posters, diplomas, degrees, plaques, mirrors, hooks, shelves, prints, and shadow boxes.  Removing the claim you staked on the property.  Pulling memories from the wall.  Patching the holes that were made long ago but have been hidden.

Because someone else will come.  Someone else will drive a nail into the wall.  They deserve the right to choose where to put the nail.  They will have memories to hang on the wall.  They will make the place their home.

You carry your memories with you.  Some may never hang on a wall again.  But when you arrive at a new location, you will not look around and see nails sticking out of the wall.  Chances are good someone else boxed up their memories and left you a clean canvas.  You know what to do.