Jun 2, 2020 2 min read

It’s the responsibility of all of us to stand up for each other when injustices occur. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis is unacceptable beyond words. The history of the killing of unarmed people of color, both in recent years and throughout our nation’s history, since the first slaves landed in Point Comfort, Va., in 1619 is a stain on all of us.

Every time we say there shouldn’t be another Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, or an Eric Garner in New York, or a Freddie Gray in Baltimore, there is always another. We don’t like talking about racism and its ugly history, nor its ugly present state. We see remnants of it in federal agencies, state houses, and even locally, with bad policies and the destruction of neighborhoods, and the relocation of people during urban renewal. It’s time we all talk about racism. It’s not a black and brown issue. It’s a human issue.

We need to collectively stand together and solve the issue once and for all. If we can’t do that on a national scale, then we need to start in our own backyards. We’ve come so far in this fight as a nation, but we have so very far to go. We must help and support black and brown people, and we must help and support law enforcement. We must hold bad actors in all groups accountable; however, we cannot and should not blame an entire race or group for bad actors, unless it’s absolutely and legitimately justified. We cannot allow individuals to serve as judge and jury. That’s not equal representation under the law. We must do better. We should always choose love, hope, empathy, and justice to guide us.

Matt Shorraw

Monessen