Ferguson Everywhere Now
by
Luke Nephew
Blood is dripping down our faces onto the stainless steel of the armored police van. The hot yellow light flickers against the angry eyes of six young black men. We are trembling in pain and rage. Our chests are heaving. We are still breathing. One man’s eyes stare into mine.
“They didn’t have to do that,” he says. He is shaking. “How they hit me in the face when I’m already cuffed? Kicked me too.”
We all chime in, recounting the details of how we were just brutalized.
“They kicked my ribs.”
"“They straight smacked my face.”
“They scraped my skin across the asphalt.”
We had just been arrested by the police on the streets of North County St. Louis for peacefully protesting the murder of another unarmed black person. Minutes ago, we were standing together calmly. We were talking, praying, listening, chanting and looking each other in the eyes. Then the police broke into the crowd and started grabbing people. Everyone started to run. I got around one line only to meet the next line in riot gear. I was tackled to the ground. Multiple cops jumped on me. One grabbed my face and smashed it into the concrete. I felt one of them slam his knee onto the back of my neck. All around, the police were doing the same thing to innocent people. My brothers were laid flat on the on the ground with automatic weapons pointed at their heads.
I was dragged across the street and thrown at the foot of a cop car. The cops yelled, “masks on!” and pulled on their gear to protect themselves from tear gas. They let us choke with our hands cuffed behind our backs. Then we were pushed into the back of the police van. The last time I was handcuffed, beaten and put in a wagon like this was in Palestine.
I think of Gaza and look at the young black men by my side. Dehumanization. Whoever thinks Ferguson and Gaza are disconnected doesn’t understand that we are in a desperate struggle against the poison of dehumanization. Wincing in pain, we catch our breath as the chaos continues outside. I heard the world is watching. But they can’t see inside of this steel cage police van."
<SNIP>
MUST READ IN ENTIRETY here
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/08/30/ferguson-everywhere-now
Powerful writing!
= new reply since forum marked as read
and pointing to the real issue here. Human dignity and mutually genuine positive regard are at stake here.
As long as someone can dehumanize the "other" then whatever is done to them physically and psychologically is acceptable in many social circles. It's what European settlers did to those who inhabited this continent prior to their arrival. As long as you can effectively dehumanize another human, their life's value is diminished and, therefore, one can design justifications through imaginary slight for destroying the "other" since there is something wrong about their existence in the presence of the perpetrator of the dehumanization... that is, in the mind of those who would find value in the dehumanization of another human. I think it is a disease that may not have a cure in our lifetimes as it requires that respect and genuine positive regard be accepted among the vast majority of humans for the cure to take hold.
Of all the species I encounter on a regular basis, humans, in my opinion, are the least valuable in the biosphere. Until we can change how we behave toward each other and the many other living organisms on the planet, we will retain that sad status in my opinion.
I'll email soon...
