Dear George,
I know you don’t know me but I’m Kelvin, a guy still living in the world you occupied for 46yrs of your abbreviated life.
Just wanted you to know how interestingly different things have been here in America since you’ve been gone just 12 days ago.
Many more people know your name than before and are saying it as though they knew you personally. You would be amazed. Your name is being memorialized even in other cities in America.
Yep, your name has even gone beyond the borders of America, would you have imagined that?
Your daughter was even quoted as saying; ‘Daddy changed the world.’
When you got up that Monday morning May 25th 2020, I’m sure you didn’t realize it would be your last day of life, there would have been no reason for you to believe that.
Like too many of your African American unarmed deceased predecessors, dying in the hands of people without the power to give life, you came across one such person dressed in a Minneapolis Minnesota police officer’s uniform that felt you seeing your 47th Birthday was totally out of the question.
George, what could you have done so bad? What could you have said so harmful, that in the company of witnesses and phone video, angering this former police officer to place his knee on your neck and apply pressure on it while you pleaded for your life?
What could you have done so bad that onlookers who pleaded for the officer to stop, went unheeded? What did you do to garner so much anger against you that when you said; ‘I can’t breathe’, your plea went ignored?
You called out for your deceased mother, did you see her in your final moments coming to get you?
George, you were robbed as a citizen of your due process in court here, the person that took your life, felt he would be judge, jury and god over your fate in that moment. It was so easy for him to take your life.
What sin did you commit so worthy of any plea to release you from the grip of death imposed on you to be ignored?
Your cheek to the concrete blood coming from your nose the horror of being unable to breathe, unable to move, what did you do so violently that your end was met with such violence?
It was a horror to watch (and in retrospect) may have been a sin, but must have certainly been unimaginable to experience.
Did you know that you’ve grown famous in your absence here? Your name has been spoken by the president, news personalities and folks who took exception to what happened to you.
All colors, all, nationalities are galvanized together in your memory, in fact, you replaced COVID-19 with opening news for several days.
But look at what it cost…it cost your life. It seemed more easy to take your life than to protect your right as a citizen. “Miranda rights.”
The store owner regrets their employee calling the police on you now, after seeing their handling of you. The store has changed their policy because of what happened to you, imagine that, but it cost you to change it. It cost your family too.
You’re not here to see what your murder did to the country. Your death breached the conciseness of what many who saw with their eyes, and decided in their heart that this must end, and my action must be apart of bringing it about.
Your death brought people out of their homes into the street to peacefully protest, some people were overcome with emotion and in their protesting fought against police this wasn’t wise, others wrongfully took the platform to loot and steal from stores set police cars on fire, this was uncalled for and NOT in the spirit you would have stood for. I believe that.
Yes, George Floyd you have a Wikipedia about you, your picture and all the information about the events that led to your demise. Your public permanent obituary, what happened to you has now become a part of American history.
But it cost. It cost your daughter who will not have her father around to guide, and love her, I think about the times as she grows up that she will really need you.
I pray your brother and other family members will see after your baby girl now, and this will hopefully inspire other men to be present fathers and fatherly examples to those in need.
So George Floyd, for people who want to criticize you personally, this isn’t about you being perfect and any personal problems you may have had, many of us have problems also and many still have them.Your critics have them, your supporters have have them as well. We’re human.
But for now a nation has been gripped by your murder in cold blood under the knee of a man in uniform going beyond his job requirement to make it personal, to make a point for all to see.
You’re gone, but not without an echo of your name, memory and life still ringing throughout this country.
It saddens me that your fame only came about as a result of your loss, the loss of your life.
I pray that the memory of your death will not dissipate over time the protesting certainly will but I trust that the spirit of the protest wont.
This issue of police brutality against African Americans is too serial for comfort, too common, too caviler until your death.
It shouldn’t have been that easy to lose you George. I would rather you still be here and not have known your name, than an “absent celebrity”, reminding us of how far we’ve come, but yet how far we have to go in this country.
Sincerely,
Kelvin
anablepsis
