Innocence and Justice

Like most of us, I have been deeply touched by the recent (and string) of murders of black men. The video of George Floyd being murdered in Minneapolis was stunning and spurred the outrage that we still see unfolding in our cities.

As I thought about my outrage and anger, I tried to get to the core of the angst. Of course there was the blatant racism that surrounded this (and all the other) situations, but drilling deeper there seemed to be an even more powerful underlying issue - that of an innocent person (at least not having been convicted) being treated so unjustly, and this began to influence my thinking. In fact, if the person in that situation in Minneapolis had been white, and we all watched the murder of that man, would we be just as outraged. I think so.

When injustice occurs, to any person, it is still stinging. Certainly, the deep, systematic racism that exists in our society is a huge issue, and it is exasperated when the circumstances emerge. Still, I think it is the basic, human injustice that is infuriating - and then compounded when racism is a part of the situation.

I know that the work I do as a disability advocate was spurred by this same energy. That is, in my early years, when I saw how people with disabilities were treated in institutions, or though other vexing aspects of devaluation, I was mobilized to do something. In a way, it was the same power of mixing innocence with injustice that energized the disability rights movement. Here were people with disabilities, none of them choosing to be disabled, being treated in disgusting and inhumane ways, and something had to be done.

So as we raise our voices through actions in the streets and at the polls through voting, lets not forget the power of injustice faced by all innocent people who are knelt on by the system.