THE OLD MAN AND THE BRIDGE

VOLUME 3

Do All Lives Matter? My first two blogs included descriptions of exchanges with passers by. In a number of those exchanges, pedestrians and bicyclists verbalized to me some version of, “Don’t all lives matter?” I welcomed a discussion on this “matter”, but almost no one was willing to engage any further. Had they been willing to stop, I would have told them that I agreed that All Lives Matter. My next question would be,”Which matters more, white lives or black lives.?” The one person who did stay around said, “Both the same”, which probably most would say whether they believe it or not. My final question is , “How is that working out? The one man who stayed to talk responded, “Not so well”.

Most importantly ,what do you think? Are we treating those PEOPLE born with varying degrees of darker skin the same as our fellow pale-faces? After nearly 400 years of the degradation of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, discrimination and redlining are we ready to stand up to systemic racism or are you still in the camp of “Only a few bad apples”? White supremacy is alive and well in Donald Trump’s America and he is fanning the flames of hatred. I feel some of it on the bridge every night. I try not to hate the haters, but that doesn’t come easy to me. I feel anger and sadness at what I see and hear and read about a significant minority of our people. But I am lifted up every night on the bridge by the wavers and the honkers and the thumbs-uppers and the “Thanks-for-what-you’re doingers”. We are winning because we must win. Thanks for listening and thanks for carrying the fight. Stay tuned.