A Reckoning Long Overdue

The tragic killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and many other Black people in the U.S. -- often at the hands of police officers or deputized civilians -- cry out for immediate, significant, and systemic societal reform that is needed to meaningfully address the long and troubled history of racial injustice in America. 

It isn't enough to condemn these horrific acts of violence against Black people and other people of color. If we ever hope to remove the scourge of racism from our nation, we each have to do far more, joining together in unity regardless of race or political beliefs to support fundamental reforms that allow all Americans to enjoy equal and equitable protection under the law.

I'd strongly encourage you to participate in a peaceful demonstration in your community, if you have the opportunity to do so. It's one thing to be supportive of a movement from the comforts of your home. It changes your perspective quite a bit when you join hundreds or even thousands of others from all walks of life, marching for justice, and in protest to the death of George Floyd specifically, laying facedown on a city road or highway on a hot day, for eight minutes and 46 seconds, with small stones and pieces of asphalt pressing against your cheek. You'll at least have a symbolic understanding of what "I Can't Breath" really means.

19 years ago, I co-founded 9/11 Day, an organization focused on promoting unity and empathy. As an organization, born from and closely connected to the 9/11 community, many of us know and collaborate with members of law enforcement, including families of officers slain in the line of duty, those killed and injured during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and other officers who still cope with illnesses arising from their service at Ground Zero during the 9/11 rescue and recovery effort. There are a great many honorable policemen and policewomen in America who do their best every day, under considerable stress and at real risk, to faithfully honor their oath to “protect and serve” all people. Some of these officers have rightly joined in voicing their support for, and are participating in, the current protests. 

But it is also undeniable that there are far too many police officers who routinely violate their oath, using their badges and weapons to degrade, injure, or kill Black people, and other people of color, without justification. If America needed any proof at all that excessive force is a problem within the law enforcement community, one need only look at how many local law enforcement agencies, and individual police officers, dealt with PEACEFUL protesters in recent weeks.

This is America -- a nation born out of the struggle against oppression. The ability to protest peacefully is an absolute, sacred right we all enjoy as citizens. That's why the Founders of this country put Freedom of Speech in the FIRST Amendment. It is disgraceful to watch local police officers, often under specific orders from higher ups, fire tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful demonstrators, hit them, choke them, shove them to the ground, and surround and charge them. More than that, it's an upfront to the very Constitution that millions of Americans have died to protect.

No wonder there is a call to "defund" police departments. People are angry and rightly so. However we make change, the culture of oppression and excessive force must end. Militarized police departments, as we are seeing right now, are a significant danger to our democracy.

We must recognize that racial injustice and the problems of police brutality generally cannot be solved simply by firing or prosecuting “bad cops.” The problem is deeply-rooted, longstanding, and systemic, shaped by an anti-Black culture embedded within the foundation of law enforcement and other institutions, dating back to the days of slavery. 

This culture has made it acceptable and even "normal" for many police officers to specifically target, devalue, dehumanize, and kill Black men and women, while the system pressures many otherwise honorable cops to remain silent and complicit. 

All that has to change from top to bottom.

This is a reckoning long overdue. More than 400 years ago Jamestown colonists first brought to America enslaved Africans. Before the slave trade was finally abolished in 1865, 12.5 million Africans had been kidnapped from their homes, locked in chains, and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. More than two million Africans died during these forced journeys.

It is time we come to terms with this horrible aspect of our nation's history, and awaken to the stark reality that racism continues to permeate virtually every facet of our society.

Looking back on the days immediately following the 9/11 attacks, like many Americans, I vividly remember how tens of millions of people of all races, beliefs, and backgrounds came together across the nation in a remarkable spirit of unity. The 9/11 attacks awakened so many of us to the realization that our societal differences pale in comparison to what we have in common as human beings. That should be a reminder, 19 years after the 9/11 attacks, that unity is possible, and there is nothing we can't do as a nation when we work together. 

That includes putting an end to systemic racism in America.

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To take action to support racial justice and equality in America, visit the 9/11 Day Black Lives Matter Resource Page