The clock goes tick, the glock goes bang.
10:31pm
Eyes drooping as I lay in bed scrolling through my Twitter feed before going to sleep, I suddenly see a video; depicting the protest in Dallas which started earlier in the evening. Starting the video it seemed like your everyday #BLM, “hands up don’t shoot protest” peaceful and productive protest, but it went bad so fast.
11:32pm
“Breaking News: 3 officers killed, 7 wounded”. I spring out of bed, a stream of anxiety comes over me. I turn on the news to see the bitter reality. I begin to recall every discussion I’ve had in the past 24 hours in defense of Alton Sterling and all other victims of police brutality. They would have never wanted this. You cannot fight fire with fire when your only fuel is not gasoline but oil. The oil will destroy the engine that was our opportunity for progress and will be left destroyed and depreciated.
11:55pm
“11 officers shot, 4 dead”…the headlines begin to update and a picture of a person of interest is flashed again and again. I feel so weak and frustrated; unable to do anything from my home. I think of how much harder it is now going to be to get any progressive reform. Some say this is hypocritical of the suspects just fueling the ‘stereotype’ of black Americans and then some say that it was the only thing left to do because peaceful protesting wasn’t working. But let me tell you, if I was to believe it was right to shoot 11 officers with the intent to kill, then I suddenly become no better than any officer who too has committed this crime.
12:08am
Reports emerge that the ‘person of interest’ was present among the civilians during the shooting therefore couldn’t be a suspect. At this point, who knows what to believe anymore. We are running around in circles refreshing our feeds on Facebook, Twitter and CNN trying to make sense of it all.
1:03am
My eyes droop again now puffy from tears as I watch the America I was raised to love paint itself in flashing lights and screams. I am embarrassed of what this country has become. I am embarrassed that we cannot communicate and work together. That instead a supremacists hatred for those with higher levels of melanin, a basic chemical makeup, is outweighing their value as humans. That instead, these devalued members of our society react with all they had left in them: hatred and vengeance. An eye for an eye? An innocent for an innocent? Revenge is one of the greatest evils because it merely fuels the problem. But the oppressors gave the oppressed no progressive choice, only disappointment, unjustly spilled blood and fatherless children.
1:30am
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”…Prayers to our society. Prayers to our future. Prayers to each and every one of you.
