Warning to a Fallen World: On Its Reckoning

Dear Society,

I told you we would be in touch. In fact, I guaranteed it. I did not want to be right. Certainly not about this, but you’re predictable in that way. Old habits, privilege and agendas die hard for you. Even if you had any inclination to change, to try and do what is right, it’s simply not in your nature to do so. It takes about two months to form a habit, and you’ve been at this for centuries, so I know better than ever to leave you to your own devices, to expect you to change all on your own, if at all. The last time I wrote to you was in response to the verdict of the Derek Chauvin, not George Floyd, trial. But only you could think we would be satisfied after that trial when there should not have been a trial, to begin with, not when the entire world saw his breath taken from him. It was a last-ditch effort to convince twelve jurors that they did not see what they could never even pretend they did not see. It was a last-ditch effort to assassinate the integrity of a man who did not sacrifice his life for the cause but was murdered because of the police brutality and White supremacy you have engendered in this country. So, you expected us to celebrate the guilty verdict when we were lamenting the fact that a Black life was taken to begin with. You fail to realize that even with George Floyd’s murderer being convicted, the cries of the families and communities that lost children, mothers, sisters, fathers, and brothers still echo, and the list continues to grow. 

Unfortunately, though, this letter is not about George Floyd. While I could linger there all day, and with all those who were murdered before and since him, you just keep doing what it is you do, which is to say, begetting more violence and bloodshed and making these letters necessary. It has been two years since his murder, and there has been, not that any of us are surprised, no change. You have kicked things into high gear, and we are even more entrenched in injustice, and that is not something, to your credit, that I thought was possible. We no longer have to think the worst because you always make it happen. The discrimination, oppression, and violence have not ceased, but you’ve upped the ante with the supermarket shooting and the concurrent school shootings and what I’m sure are more crimes that simply have not been filmed or documented. 

You are, as you have always been, out of control, and I’m sure you would like it if we all lost hope and acquiesced to the status quo of briefly being unsettled by the havoc you wreak and just moving on because nothing is done. But for everyone who has lost hope or who is resigned to believing that there is nothing to be done, there is an individual with an intrinsic sense of endurance that is most likely rooted in fatigue because, as tired as we all are of this endless cycle of violence and selective justice, leaving things in your hands is in no way a solution they are comfortable with. Because you have proved time and time again that you are in no way capable of making choices on our behalf or for the greater good.

Then there is me, who does not trust you to protect my life or anyone else’s, especially those who look like me. But then again, I never have, but it isn’t personal. I know better than to trust you, not when I can put confidence in God (Psalms 118:8). You have to know you’re not in control. That despite your best efforts to do as you wish, kill and oppress, and absolve who you want, there is a reckoning afoot. There comes a day when you will be accountable to someone far more powerful and sovereign than me. I know you would like to believe that all of us are subject to your laws and (in)justice, but you are mistaken if you think you can go on like this without any consequence or accountability (Galatians 6:7-9). You feel powerful now, right? Like you can do anything but yet for a bit longer, and it will be as though you were never here (Hebrews 10:37). I have learned the value and importance of patience, of waiting on the Lord, and being of good courage (Psalms 27:14) and that is how I live from day to day knowing that you, as high as you may feel, will be brought low (Isaiah 2:17). Not by me, though. I’m merely a messenger but by the Creator of the Universe, by He whose people you continually allow to put down, disenfranchise, oppress, murder, and consistently fail to protect.

I’m not sure how long we’ll have to do this before any of this sinks in, but I hope, for your sake, it is sooner rather than later. You have really made a mess and have allowed far too much bloodshed, suffering, and heartache. What is worse is that because of your agenda that prioritizes personal interests above all else, what happened all over the country in schools, supermarkets, homes, and on the street can and will only happen again.

If you’re tired of this, I need you to take a cold, hard look in the mirror because this is on you despite your best efforts to point the finger anywhere else. In people who look like you, you see mental illness and good intentions, but in people who like me, you see a beast, an animal to put down, and an intrinsic criminal who belongs in a cage. Because when children and teachers die in schools, and men in the streets and women in their homes, you write it off, and you sweep it under the rug, but there is no more room under the rug, and there hasn’t been for a long time. But there is something you can do. Something you have never done before. Martin Luther King Jr (and don’t get me started on what you did to him and attempted to do to his legacy, which will resound for generations to come) once said the time is always right to do right. The statement speaks for itself, and I pray it is one you think about long and hard. If not, I know you will be hearing from me, and until we see a difference in you, that will never change.

Undoubtedly,
Your Greatest Adversary