The Old Man And The Bridge
Volume 1
My first blog of many, some, few, the only? You can’t plan too far ahead at 86 years of age. Yes, I am the old whipper-snapper who has been “patrolling” the Mankato N. Mankato Veteran’s Memorial Bridge almost every night for the past 3 months. Shortly after the killing of George Floyd in Mpls. I joined a group of protesters numbering from 25 to 150. I was probably 60 years older than everyone else, but having taught and coached in H.S. for 38 years, I was in my comfort zone.
As our numbers dwindled, I stayed until I am now often alone or joined by a family member, a former student or a new friend, who supports the cause. And it is a cause for me. I believe there has been so much apathy, lack of awareness, dis-information, about our country’s history-particularly the people who are different from us white Anglo-Saxons, such as the Native Americans with their many “Trails of Tears”, the African Americans with the plague of slavery, to immigrants who came seeking a better life. Most sadly, systemic racism persists in a significant proportion of our citizenry in 2020.
We have made much progress in acceptance of differences over the years, but the equality “promised” by our founders has never been realized. And now we have a president who condemns those different people from “s-hole” countries as “murderers and rapists” when statistics tell a different story. That Black Lives Matter is a “symbol of hate” and people like me are “anarchists and thugs”.
This is why I am on the bridge and writing here. Stay tuned.
