It is perhaps fitting that on the anniversary of the Tulsa massacre 100 years ago that
we now discover this:
Calls are mounting for greater accountability and a search for more unmarked graves after the discovery last week of 215 bodies at a former residential school, one of more than 100 in Canada where Indigenous children were separated from their families.
The Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation announced the discovery of the children's remains last week, found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Some of the children who died at the school, which closed in 1978, were as young as 3.
As a Financial Professional, it is clear that to me that teachers teach, liars lie, and, more profoundly, numbers numb. It's what they do.
It would be different to say that 215 pairs of children's shoes were discovered buried in an mass grave. At least then we can associate the shoes with tiny feet. We can imagine what a 3 year-old’s foot looks like. The number “215” means nothing. To say that “430 tiny shoes” were found in an unmarked grave conveys that they were worn by children.
And with each individual murder, we lose our humanity.
Years ago, a murder here in Brooklyn where I live prompted me to write a song which I sang at a demonstration, a precursor to the
#BLM movement 40 years later.
The last verse goes like this:
Some like to point their fingers and tell us who they think we should blame
Some say we're in this together, and so we must share in the shame
But when it happens again, and you know that it will
For the world's full of swine that feeds on plenty of swill
And when we count up the dead like debtors tally a bill
Will we remember their names?
Numbers numb.
The path of least resistance is Outrage Fatigue.
I invite us all to access our humanity.
Numbers represent the body count.
Names represent people.