WTF is Wrong With Georgia?
Racism, sexism and murder
How is it possible that a black man can go jogging in his neighborhood, be chased down and shot dead by two white men — one standing in the back of their pick-up truck openly brandishing his gun — and the cops do nothing until two months later when someone posts a video of the event?
WTF is wrong with Georgia?
WTF is wrong with America that we let this stand?
It’s bad enough that we bear the original sin of slavery on our already shriveled and rapidly rotting national soul. But are we NEVER going to repent? Do we ALWAYS have to shamble through the world, even in this brand new 21st Century, with human blood dripping from our horrible, murderous hands?
Ahmaud Arbery — a beautiful and healthy 25-year-old man, a man who jogged every day, a man well-known by his neighbors, who waved and smiled at him often — was shot by a father-son murder party back in February.
“Police have identified the two men who chased him as Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34. Neither has been arrested or charged, and the investigation is ongoing,” according to this story posted by NBC on the morning of May 7.
The shameless killers claim the “stand your ground” justification which was used by another psychotic white man to chase and gun down unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. They say they thought he was a burglar…
It’s not that nobody cares. Tens of thousands have signed this petition on change.org demanding justice. Neighbors are marching demanding arrests.
It’s just that nobody in power cares. It makes me want to vomit. It makes Arbery’s neighbors cry.
This is why the movement for racial justice is called Black Lives Matter and not All Lives Matter, though of course they do. Because in America, it’s apparently just fine to murder black men and boys. It’s also common practice to pull them over at random, arrest them easily, sentence them harshly, and lock them up en masse in jail.
It happens everywhere in this country. But I was struck by the news that this particular abomination took place in Georgia, because that’s also where women are being jailed for having abortions, while the men who impregnate them walk free.
And I vividly remember this scene in the 2004 movie about Ray Charles, the musician from Georgia who so beautifully renders “Georgia on My Mind,” when he’s walking into a performance hall in Georgia and a black fan calls out from behind a barrier, asking why he’s performing at a segregated venue.
Charles, who was blind, stops to fully absorb the information. Then he turns around and refuses to play.
That showed strength. That showed courage. That showed integrity. If only the white men in power in America would show some of the same.
Update: the McMichaels were finally arrested late in the day May 7. Now we can only pray that the judge has the ovaries to do what’s right.
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