41 Years to Justice

Almost the totality of my lifetime thus far

41 years…
41 Bullets…
There is some magic to the number 41 when it comes to doing right and doing wrong with People of Color in these United States.
(And by the way, I happen to love my country!)

1964 brought many things… among them the hurricane force winds of change. Civil rights for those who have been repressed, oppressed and depressed through a systematic governmental doctrine of inhumanity.

A particular 3 men, two Jewish and one African American joined the Freedom Riders to make a difference. To effect a change. That opportunity was snatched as each of these young men was brutally and purposefully murdered in cold rigid blood. On the whim of men who thought they had the right to take another human beings life. Men who did so and walked away to live out the rest of their days content and satisfied to have eliminated what they considered to be human vermin. The families of those young boys have been left a lifetime of suffering and loss.

I am somewhat amazed that during the first trial, in 1967, an all white jury was hung 11-1 in favor of conviction. That “1” could not convict a preacher. Obviously a reverence no longer held for those who inhabit the Preacher/Priest roles in our society today. My mother had a saying about that, “The devil always has a front row seat in church on Sunday”. It is a great disguise. But I digress…

Today this unrepentant Klansman of 80 years was sentenced to 60 years in jail -20 years for each life. Although the judge who imposed the sentence “took no pleasure” in it, I must say that I do. I am glad that he will live out his remaining bitter and painful days in a prison of his own making. Much like the graves he and his friends dug for the men they planned to kill. Finally. I recognize that these words are written with an unforgiving heart… I am just not that enlightened yet.

Chaney Schwerner Goodman

I hope this is not viewed as a closure. Ending a painful chapter of American history. This is just the beginning. My hope is that all of those who participated in the lynchings, mutilations, burnings, public humiliations, taking body parts of the Men, Women and Children they tortured and murdered, be made accountable for their crimes. Is that too much to ask in the land of the free? Forget my 40 acres and a mule (which they did), give me justice.