It was deafening. It was exhilarating. It was pure. It was a necessary primal scream against the brutality visited upon people of color over centuries in the United States of America.
Feet on the ground for #BlackLivesMatter and #OneFargo
I could live a thousand white lives like mine and never understand what Black people have endured in this country.
Even so, I can do my part to ensure the wrongs don’t continue to repeat and repeat and repeat, over and over and over again, keeping Black and other people of color down in our society.
Today was different. There was joy along with the anguish and anger of other marches from the past two weeks. It was more than that, too. I felt connected to everyone else marching today like I’ve never felt at previous marches. As one woman’s simple sign said: “Beauty in Unity.”
Black men still swing from trees; White men still put them underknee.
Listen, fellow citizens. Listen.
A 1939 song of protest and rage resonates today, in 2020:
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root / Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” – Lyrics and music by Abel Meeropol, recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. Listen.
Judgements are being tossed about like tear gas canisters launched into crowds of people.
Peaceful protester in Fargo, N.D., May 30, 2020
Peaceful protesters are good. Rioters are bad. Police are good. Police are bad. Police should use whatever force is necessary to clear protesters/rioters, including lethal force. Property damage is counter-productive. Police are instigating violent reactions. Left-wing extremists are agitating protesters. Right-wing extremists are agitating protesters. The extremists want chaos and revolution.
On and on.
As we share thoughts and opinions about the murder of George Floyd and who is doing what, and as we debate the good and bad of peaceful protests, violent riots and all the complex, related issues in the wake of Floyd’s death, I suggest we keep this gruesome pair of visions before our minds’ eyes:
Bloody tree, bloody black body swinging in the breeze.
Black man on the pavement, white police officer kneeling on his neck.
There was a peaceful march in my city, Fargo, N.D., on the morning and afternoon of May 30. Black Lives Matter organized the protest to remember Floyd, a Black man murdered at the hands (knees) of White police officers in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, and to draw attention to ongoing, systemic racism and police brutality in the United States.
Declaration will be an acknowledgement that the climate crisis is an issue and that cities need to begin preparing to adapt.
Red River Valley Climate Action Members Gather Signatures for Resolutions
Activists with Red River Valley Climate Action (RRVCA) want the Fargo (N.D.) City Commission and Moorhead (Minn.) City Council to declare climate emergencies, and they’re collecting signatures to highlight community members’ support.
A progression of weak arguments for dismissing the frontrunner is out there distracting caucus-goers and primary voters.
Seven Unreasonable Reasons Propagated to Undermine the Frontrunner
Bernie Sanders keeps winning caucuses and primaries, the latest in Nevada. The Democratic Establishment is freaking. It’s afraid of him. It’s doesn’t want him. So its devotees are working to sabotage him.
I don’t like it.
I despise what the Democratic Establishment did to Sanders and rank-and-file voters in 2016, and what it’s trying to do again.
A longtime Feel the Berner put it to me this way –
