Overtaken by Events

“You can't fight hatred with hatred and expect anyone to listen to you. You can only try to lessen it with humor, wit, truth and commonsense. If that doesn't work run like hell, while they throw rocks at you.”

―Shannon L. Alder

This week I received good news from two charities I support through sales of my books. In spite of the ongoing Covid 19 crisis, Siloam Mission, serving the homeless in Winnipeg, advises that to their knowledge none of their clientele is affected by the virus. Also, this week I received photos depicting wonderful progress on the Sierra Leone Action Mission school build project. The roof is being erected! I had intended to write a blog of celebration and joy. Those will be the subjects of my next blog. Now, other events have overtaken us.

The tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis together with a justice and legal system which disappoints, frustrates and angers the coloured citizens of the USA has led to nationwide protests, rioting and looting. Covid 19 is no longer headline news.

Much will be said about these events over the coming days, weeks, months and years. But little will change unless the system becomes equitable.

Initial media reports indicate that the police were called by a store clerk who complained that George Floyd was allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit twenty dollar bill. There is no indication of an investigation, an intent to defraud or whether the money was actually counterfeit. All we know is that another black man is dead and that chaos reigns supreme in dozens of American cities ---- all because of twenty dollars. In comparison, when Wall Street bankers defrauded the population of billions of dollars in the mortgage scandals of 2008, how many perpetrators were cuffed, thrown to the pavement and died? Instead, their businesses were bailed out. When too many individuals perceive inequity in the legal and justice systems, they sometimes turn into mobs.

Mobs do not think. They act. Looting, burning and rioting are thoughtless acts committed by enraged masses deteriorating into the lowest common denominator. The only solution is to have systems in place which provide a semblance of equity so that mobs have no reason to form.

Much more can and will be said --- by others. There ends my commentary.

Now, I sit and mourn and pray for common sense and better times.

My friends, stay safe!

Gerald M. Sliva

Week 11 of Covid 19 crisis - May 31, 2020

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