{"id":1464,"date":"2021-04-21T16:25:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T20:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redchairblogs.wpengine.com\/holymoly\/?p=1464"},"modified":"2021-04-21T16:25:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T20:25:44","slug":"bouquets-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/2021\/04\/21\/bouquets-of-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Bouquets of Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like so many people yesterday, I waited restlessly to hear the <\/span>verdict<\/span><\/i>. What would the outcome be? I had no certain expectation as to how the jury would decide. So many times before, police officers were acquitted of murder despite what seemed to be overwhelming evidence of guilt. Would George Floyd\u2019s murder become one more instance of justice deferred? This question seemed all the more glaring because Floyd\u2019s murder was captured in real time on May 25 by Darnella Frazier, one of the witnesses. Frazier and others were part of what Keith Ellison, the Attorney General for the state of Minnesota, called the \u201cbouquet of humanity\u201d\u2014ordinary people who saw wrong being committed, stopped what they were doing, raised their voice, and recorded for all the world to see what they were witnessing. Confucius in the <\/span>Analects<\/span><\/i> tells us, \u201cTo see what is right, but to fail to do it, is to be lacking in courage.\u201d Darnella Frazier and the assembled bouquet of humanity on that day did not lack courage. They witnessed a grave wrong and provided testimony to the entire world. And the world saw George Floyd as he lay dying, a White man\u2019s knee, an officer of the law, pinning his neck, the neck of a Black man, to the ground. In nine minutes and 29 seconds the entire world watched his passage from life to death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No doubt many people felt a sense of restlessness and unease waiting for the <\/span>verdict<\/span><\/i>. And then I saw the headline: \u201cChauvin found guilty on all counts of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.\u201d I read and then reread the headline. <\/span>Guilty on all counts<\/span><\/i>. Relief followed, an elated loosening of tensions and concerns. <\/span>Guilty on all counts<\/span><\/i>. I watched the news footage of crowds outside the courthouse rejoicing, and similar crowds that had gathered across America. <\/span>Guilty on all counts<\/span><\/i>. There existed a common feeling\u2014relief, elation, even victory\u2014that passed like lightning between people separated by geography and distance, but united in happiness. An electric circuit of joy. Shortly after the verdict was read, Ellison spoke to the press. He distinguished between accountability and justice\u2014surely the verdict assigns accountability and responsibility, and thus is restorative. In that sense, justice has been served. What cannot be restored, however, is the life of George Floyd. <\/span>Guilty on all counts<\/span><\/i> is not the happily-ever-after ending to this story. The great task of justice, as Ellison so eloquently put it, is the ongoing work of the American people. In the words of former President Barack Obama, \u201cWhile today\u2019s verdict may have been a necessary step on the road to progress, it was far from a sufficient one. We cannot rest. We will need to follow through with the concrete reforms that will reduce and ultimately eliminate racial bias in our criminal justice system.\u201d A more perfect union can be achieved only by marshalling our common humanity. We stand united in difference, much as a bouquet is an image of union in difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Say his name: <\/span>George Floyd<\/span><\/i>. Say his name.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like so many people yesterday, I waited restlessly to hear the verdict. What would the outcome be? I had no certain expectation as to how the jury would decide. So many times before, police officers were acquitted of murder despite …<\/p>\n

Bouquets of Humanity<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-steve"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1QIf6-nC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}