What Would You Do? Better Yet, What Can You Do?

After learning of the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black male in Brunswick, Georgia on February 23, 2020, I reflected on my personal experience as a black man and some of my personal life’s experiences. You see, when I attended the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Brunswick, Georgia back in the early 1990s, I was about the same age as Arbery, I would go out for a jog around town to stay in shape. Therefore, the way that Ahmaud Arbery died is very troubling to me.  Not knowing all the specific details of the incident, my reflections are based on what I know and what I have seen in the video that was released showing an unarmed person being chased and killed on a mere suspicion and on his physical appearance. 

As a black male, I know and understand the pain that many others go through. Like many, I have been and continue to be profiled, because of my skin color, as Sterling K. Brown recently stated in his YouTube video, and even most recently in the Central Park NY incident where a white woman called the police on a black man who was bird watching in the Park because he asked her to put a leash on her dog.

In 1996, I wrote the poem “To Protect and Serve” to reflect how I felt after I was profiled, not by law enforcement, but by fellow citizens whom I took the oath to protect and serve.  

As I approach, you look at me. 

I can see the fear in your eyes.

But why do you fear me?

As I get closer you clinch your purse.

If you only knew, I took the oath to protect and serve. 

Yes, the one you fear will give his life for you. 

As a retired law enforcement professional, I now walk to stay in shape. After this recent incident, I ask myself what would I do if I did nothing wrong and I was being chased and hunted? What would I do if a person jumped out of a truck with his gun pointed at me? What would my mind say to do? I know that my internal self-defense would say to fight, fight to stay alive just like Ahmaud Arbery tried to do in the video. I know that I would be scared but I would fight and just like Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, I would rage, rage against dying and not just give up without a fight.

My question to all is this: what would you do if you were in the same situation as Ahmaud Arbery and if, for some reason, you did not survive that unfair fight? What would you want to happen as far as justice? What if that was your father, son, daughter, wife, husband, brother, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin family member, colleague, coworker, or friend? I cannot imagine the pain and I hope that no else ever has to feel such pain.  

A mentor once said to me: “Do not wait until you are personally impacted to care. By then it might be too late. So, care now to make a change for the future”. My friends, this is about how we value life, take race and politics out of the picture, once again, what would you do? Better yet, what can you do? 

I know and understand that change will not happen overnight, however if we all do our part, we can impact positive changes. Again, do not wait until you are personally touched or impacted to care and affect a positive change. Show compassion, empathy, care. 

What if it were you? As I write this, I know that Ahmaud Arbery and many others before him could be me and that is a very scary thought. Although a scary thought; I will not let that stop me from believing that there is good in people, and that the words "we the people" represents all the people.

“The past is where you learned the lesson. The future is where you apply the lesson.” unknown author: