The Letter That Matters #2 — written to George Floyd
Dear Mr Floyd,
You had to lose your life so that I could start living mine.
I wonder how you’re feeling right now, up there, above us all. I wonder if you know that your passing would change so many people’s lives. Not only in your country. All over the world. I wonder if you know that you would not only change our stories, YOU would change the course of HISTORY.
His knee killed you. That cop. Derek Chauvin. It was his knee that provoked your death. But that knee weighed 400 tons. Made out of 400 years. Made out of an entire system. It wasn’t only his knee and power, it was theirs.
You didn’t stand a chance, Mr Floyd. Like so many others that came before you, before us. Like so many others that have also lost their lives, since you lost yours. Like so many that will still lose their lives, for the same unfair reasons. Like so many of us who haven’t been able to breathe either. Not only in America. Black people, like you and I, all over the world. We haven’t been able to breathe normally, since we were born. Under. All. That.Weight.
Last night, that entire power shifted. It gives me hope, Mr Floyd. You gave us hope. Your life gave us that, not your death. I now know I have to continue living. I can no longer give up. I can no longer run away. I can breathe. Again.
You had to lose your life so that I could live mine. I am and I will. More than ever. Without fear. With power.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr Floyd.
May you now rest in peace.
Yours truly,
Jacqueline
