There is a huge contrast between the reaction to the death of George Floyd and that of Charlie Johnson.
I’m certain you have heard of George Floyd, but you may not recognize the name Charlie Johnson or the circumstances surrounding his death.
The circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Floyd have been news fodder for more than a year now. Minneapolis will take years to recover from the destruction and looting during days and nights of rioting following his death. And every time another Black person is killed by a police officer, the reactions of some are all too predictable long before the actual circumstances are determined.
Charlie Johnson was a senior at St. Thomas University in St. Paul. He was celebrating his impending graduation with friends in downtown Minneapolis a few weeks ago. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed by a bullet meant for someone else - I don’t think we know the full story and it doesn’t seem to matter.
No protests, no riots and no looting equal no news - and certainly no $27 million payout for the family.
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I’ll throw some additional observations at you. In the past month or so in Minneapolis, three Black children have been shot. Two have since died and the third remains hospitalized. It appears they were in the wrong place at the wrong time too, but there are certainly gangs of young, disenchanted boys and men who assign no value to human life. Even the $35,000 reward that has been offered for reliable information leading to the killers has produced nothing.
Does the Black community have a code of silence similar to that attributed to police departments?
None of these people deserved to die the way they did. But they are dead because of us - not some other mysterious force - but our fellow human beings.
Death is an inescapable part of life. Some wackos and a few scientists want us to think otherwise, but they are dead wrong. If cancer, heart disease, respiratory diseases, strokes, accidents, Alzheimer’s disease, COVID-19 and diabetes aren’t enough, some of us become motivated to kill people we hate, don’t like or who trigger some strong resentment.
The community organizers and other groups seem to be great at organizing protests. They need to move beyond the protests that too often don’t remain peaceful. “No justice, no peace,” needs to move forward.
Mohandas Ghandi and the Rev. Martin Luther King understood the power of peace and the words of Christ. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.”
I know I’m no smarter than the folks sitting next to me, but one thing I know for certain is if all of us - and I do mean all - cannot let go of the past and move forward, more and more of us won’t be here tomorrow.
That’s how I see it.
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