Ahmaud Arbery

Today's our first post. And after thinking for week's about what to post and how to make it impactful to our would-be readers, a story broke about a man named Ahmaud Arbery. He was a 25-year old Black man, shot down by two white men while taking a jog in his home neighborhood in GA. The story broke because his murder took place two months ago and the men who shot him have yet to be arrested. 

So, today's our first blog post and in thinking honestly about what to write about.. I am choosing to write about Ahmaud Arbery. I don't choose it because it's trending, or popular or even because I think anyone will ever read this. I write it because it's honest and that's who we are. I write this blog because the fears I have about this world we live in are as real as the tears that are streaming down my face as I type. I write because a mother has lost her son for no reason (AGAIN!) and there's no "I'm sorry your son was murdered" card, but it seems that there should be. It seems we need to dedicate an entire collection of thousands of cards that bear the names of those that have been murdered at the hands of police officers, or citizens acting like police officers (as is the case with Ahmaud). It would appear that our writers need to ban together and write cards that express our sympathy and our sorry because the perpetrators that killed their loved ones will never be able to say it. 

It seems we need to write cards to children of the men and women used as targets for practice of shooting hate masqueraded as bullets into people's bodies and justifying it under the banner of "neighborhood watch/citizen's arrest" . We want to let them know that even though they have no reason to believe it, there's love in the world. 

It seems we need to gather the creatives that handle our packaging to figure out how to make a time capsule that we can bury for people in the future to find. In case the history books leave them out, we need a way to let people know that these men, women...children LIVED!! And apologize for the contributions that they weren't able to make that may have improved their lives. But we'll never know because "it looked like a gun"..."he was running like a thief"...someone "felt threatened"..."she was mouthy..." There will be an endless list of reasons for why the photo albums that show their lives' lineages stop at a time too soon. So we should probably be about the business of doing our part to make it so they are remembered. 

Tomorrow, on 5/8/20, a bunch of people will gather and walk/run 2.23 miles in his honor. There will be signs and protests and tears and...I didn't know him but his pictures and his family interviews seem to suggest that he'd be the kind of guy that would be proud that he'd be the person to bring people together this way. I'm going to run in his honor because I sad that we'll never really know.