Have we reached the end of our ability to imbibe the swill of societal imperfections? Are we so full of our ugliness now that we are blinded to continued images black churches being burned, hatred costumed and parading in four-wheel drive pickups, and the black bodies that continue to be dropped with impunity? Like any deep festering wound that’s been left untreated, the infectious pus of national indifference causes injury to swell and break open spilling madness living and dead. The soft body of our societal will has been left undefended far too long. The engine used to destroy infection in the past has been compromised by the politics of fear. The soft fluttering of wings in the “new world” has magnified down the centuries resulting in a hurricane of riotous ignorance that allows decency to be coopted by greed. Now we deal with an abscess that has moved from soft tissue to the deeper organs – inflaming lungs and brains with every headline screaming the ruthless, unbending option of chaos.
Have we reached the tipping point? That point where the mind shuts down and the body, suddenly finding itself on truth overload, turtles into its shell for protection? Killing the messenger? There is no curve ball as tricky or treacherous as life – but we must find a way to catch it. We cannot allow ignorance to flourish in our tents. We must make sure our silence, in the presence of hatred, is never taken for agreement. We can stand up; move forward together as the shell protecting the backs of those like-minded in front of us. We must understand that there is no guilt to lay for the past – only from our indifference today and in the future.