Political Quotes

“first he said ``I can't breathe.'' Then he called out ``Mama'' for his late mother. Last Monday, in broad daylight, George Floyd was slowly, publicly killed by someone whose responsibility it was to protect and serve. Officer Derek Chauvin, who has since been rightfully fired, spent about 3 minutes ignoring Floyd's cries of pain, refusing to move his knee from Floyd's neck, refusing to let up, to get up, even as the man under him begged for life and lost consciousness. Then he spent roughly another 6 minutes after Floyd had fallen silent ignoring the number of growing of witnesses who begged him to see the obvious--that the man under his knee was unresponsive, that he was dying. As a mom, there are not words to describe the visceral, gut-wrenching feeling of hearing someone cry out for their mother in a moment of such desperation. George Floyd's death was unnecessary and heartbreaking. It was a tragedy, but horrifyingly, it was not an anomaly. From Eric Garner, who told us 6 years ago that he, too, could not breathe, to Tamir Rice, who never made it to his 13th birthday, the senseless killing of unarmed Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement has become an all-too-common occurrence. The horror of the moment, then the outrage and sadness and, yes, anger that follow have turned into a pattern that too many people appear to believe is normal. It is not, and we cannot--must not--let ourselves become numb to the reality in front of us.…”