GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME, AMERICA

"Come Together....Right Now.. Over Me!"   -John Lennon & Paul McCartney

These are the words that have been echoing in my mind this week, as if, for the first time, I'm hearing them correctly.

As a Jewish man of white coloring (I don't believe we're actually considered white as crazy as that is), I cannot know what it is to be black in this country.  As learned as I like to believe I am, I was ignorant to "The Talk" black parents give their children on how to behave with police and in society so as not to create any escalation in chance meetings.  I believed that the majority of people, not just the police, in this country relied less "on the color of their skin then on the content of their character," to paraphrase Dr. King.

As I have grown older, that theory has been unproven over and over, and never as vilely and more gravely than the past few weeks.  The murder of George Floyd is just that. It is not an accidental death.  It is not a random incident.  It is murder.  It is an act of unchecked power by a police force with a giant responsibility they are not yet fit to hold.  It is symbolized in that officer, pressing his knee on George Floyd's neck, an oppressive power with a giant ego and a cynical heart.  It is an unforgivable act, and one that highlights such acts that date back since before the Civil Rights Movement.

I could not watch the George Floyd video.  I had already seen it in the choke hold video of Eric Garner from 2014.  Why wasn't that enough?  A giant black man holding his hands up, but not quite trustful of the police, is wrestled to the ground by a cadre of officers, one of them choking him.  Instead of releasing the choke hold, the arresting officer continues to choke Garner into unconsciousness.  He later dies.  

Eric Garner

I had had enough after witnessing the chasing down and shooting video of Ahmaud Arbery this past February that only came to light a few weeks ago.  I had read enough to feel the harsh pain of Atatiana Jefferson, who was at home babysitting her own nephew.  I had shed enough tears over watching Philando Castile reach toward his glove compartment and endure five terminal bullets at close range.

And yet not enough tears are shed.  There are not enough moments spent feeling the pain that the community of our black brothers and sisters has to feel after watching another black person's life be snuffed out simply because of an ignorant fear borne of white men and women.  

Jefferson                                Arbery                                  Castile

And now I hear George Floyd pleading with me to let him breathe, just like I heard Eric Garner pleading to all of us to let him breathe, and I can't breathe.  I feel constricted by my own limitations as a father and protector of my own family and children, to now step out and join this wave of protests.  I feel the need to march and join this demand for justice in the way it should be done, by invoking the memory of these martyrs in a peaceful way.  But my own responsibilities to my own children now hold me back.  As I considered joining the protest in Santa Monica yesterday, the realization struck me that the risks to my family are just too great, especially in a day of unchecked gun ownership.

We stand at this moment, and I do mean we, for we is how I feel about the people of color who have long faced an unfair, unchecked and unbalanced system of law run by small white men, with a chance to really affect change permanently.  Because of the internet, because of our inter-connectivity, we are at a precipice in time that can tip the scale of justice towards the rule of true equality.

COME TOGETHER, RIGHT NOW, OVER ME!

I can only sympathize with the black cause as a person of white skin color.  But as a human being I can empathize and feel the pain in all the stories, all the incidents, and all the injustices I have read about and witnessed, including those that involved my own ignorance.   

George Floyd

I can hear George Floyd imploring us to not allow his death be in vain.  I can hear him urging us to join hands in his name, and push for change.  Push back against hatred.  Push back against those that wish to tarnish his protest with looting and violence.

I can hear all those who died above chanting our names and imploring us to be responsible not only for their deaths, but for our own lives.

I can hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rallying all of us to invoke his Dream one more time.  To judge each other by our hearts and minds, not our skin, our race or our religion.

This is a chance to do it and to make it happen once and for all. I beg all of you, all of us -- let's get it right this time America, for all our sakes.