The fire next time
However, what has transpired after the murder on camera of George Floyd by a group of Minneapolis police officers is of another order of magnitude.
Let us ignore the agents provocateurs who are turning demonstrations which begin peacefully into riots. They are a minority, and aren't moving the needle towards mainstream opposition toward the protests.
What we have right now is the most widespread civil rights demonstrations this country has seen since the 1960s. And the protests have gone worldwide, in London, Lagos, and Berlin.
As the old saw goes: The worm has turned.
Partly this is due to three months under COVID-19 isolation. But mostly this is due to a populace enraged equally by racial injustice and the regime of Donald Trump.
Ignore the looters. The people who protest peacefully should put the fear of God into those who want things to stay the same.
We have the likes of Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, and Mitch McConnell reaching for their smelling salts and trying to get on the right side of the protests. That three such callow men, concerned only for their own futures, should show any concern for the uprisings around Mr. Floyd's death should give an indication of how much of a line has been crossed.
We've all seen the snuff film of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin extinguishing Mr. Floyd's life. One picture in particular will haunt me for the rest of my life. In that picture I saw a man who knew, in his last moments, that he was going to die. One doesn't get over that. One doesn't forget that. Millions of Americans saw the same thing, and that final straw broke the camel's back.
Over one hundred American cities have seen protests, and many of them have seen outright uprisings. I lived through the Rodney King uprising, and I don't recall this much solidarity from the rest of the country. We have entered a new phase of our country's fraught relationship with race. This dwarfs LA in 1992. This dwarfs Ferguson. This dwarfs Baltimore. Eric Garner was likewise murdered, and the cities didn't erupt. This is as if Dr. King had been assassinated again, and then some.
The image of a black man being murdered in broad daylight, on video, has pricked the conscience of this country like nothing has in decades. This is one injustice too far for people of good will to ignore, or shrug shoulders, or resignedly aver that nothing they can do will make a difference. Now, they're willing to put their bodies on the line. Now, they're willing to say "This far, and no further." Now they're willing to say "Here I stand. I can do no other."
Will this effect change? I'm optimistic. We have a miscreant in the White House who is on the side of the racists. He can't credibly pivot (PIVOT!) to being concerned about racial matters. His entire life has been one of racial animus and fear. People are tired, and almost four years of this regime has made them no longer fearful to speak their minds and cry their anguish. Again, ignore the agents provocateurs. They can do damage, but this has gone far beyond their meager powers. We're now a nation rising in righteous, furious indignation.
On the previous blog, I wrote a few times about the Catholic theology of the "Fortunate Fall". Were it not for Adam and Eve's sin, we wouldn't have had the need for a Savior. I've adapted that to our current circumstances. We're in the shit. But without it, we'd never confront the manifold sins which are our patrimony, and rectify them. We are now in that place. We either confront our sins, or we perish. The choice is that stark.
And while Donald Trump is shitting his Depends and hiding in the bunker, look at the graphic which fronts this piece. That is a leader, listening to the downtrodden, working for the betterment of all.
We're in the shit. But it's in our power to extricate ourselves from it. Let us have that wisdom.