{"id":1177,"date":"2021-05-03T17:25:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T17:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=1177"},"modified":"2021-05-03T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T17:25:10","slug":"dont-exhale-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/03\/dont-exhale-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Exhale Yet!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Rev. Donald L. Perryman, D.Min.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Truth Contributor\n<\/p>\n

\n

We have many reformers, few transformers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/em>Jean Toomer<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For the first time in many years, our collective attention was riveted on a courtroom.\u00a0 We nervously watched for the verdict in the prosecution of the nine-minute and 29-second murder of George Floyd.<\/p>\n

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!<\/p>\n

I share in the sentiment expressed by most people that the three guilty verdicts were correct. Former policeman Derek Chauvin was appropriately held accountable for his loathsome actions.<\/p>\n

However, there was another current of thought, though, that I found enlightening.\u00a0 Many people expressed it, but perhaps the most notable person to give voice to this idea was the United States president.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden said he was \u201crelieved\u201d at the verdict.<\/p>\n

That fact alone\u2014standing on the side of the road while the celebratory parade goes by\u2014is proof that we have exponentially more to do.<\/p>\n

Think about it.\u00a0 That case.\u00a0 That evidence.\u00a0 That crime.\u00a0 And we were merely\u00a0relieved<\/em>\u00a0to see Chauvin convicted?<\/p>\n

The question\u2014which history will answer\u2014is whether this verdict represents a singular exception or a turning point on the road to the radical systemic transformation of our police system and our society.<\/p>\n

One White former police officer is found guilty of killing a Black person, and then six more police killings of unarmed Black people take place in the next 24 hours. The State-sponsored slayings included a Black girl in Columbus who was shot simultaneously as the nation sat raptly waiting for the verdict in the Minneapolis Courthouse.<\/p>\n

Anyone who is \u201calive to the moment in which we are now living\u201d knows that merely being \u201crelieved\u201d won\u2019t cut it. The continuing unjustifiable slaughter of unarmed Black men, women, and children by law enforcement has us living in a perpetual state of emergency.<\/p>\n

The total systemic transformation of the police is long overdue.\u00a0 I am hopeful that this event will signal a pivot in how we are policed.\u00a0 Individual officers must be consistently held accountable for the crimes they commit while wearing their badges.<\/p>\n

The sun has risen and set more than 55,000 times since the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, and we are still demanding to see its promise kept:<\/p>\n

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a more significant idea that I believe is being neglected in the pursuit of equal protection.\u00a0 That idea is\u00a0equality<\/em>.<\/p>\n

America was founded on many things, one of which was the dehumanization of people of African descent.\u00a0 From the \u201c3\/5\u201d clause of the Constitution through slavery, the Civil War, reconstruction, Jim Crow, separate but equal, and all the way to that courtroom in Minneapolis, the idea continues to exist that black lives are worth less than white lives.<\/p>\n

Until we confront that uncomfortable truth, we cannot hope to dismantle the system that it created.<\/p>\n

Therefore, we must speak the truth, persistently and courageously.\u00a0 We need a collective voice that includes everyone willing to confront ugly truths and demand that we abandon older inequitable simplicities for a new day.<\/p>\n

The last year has opened eyes and changed minds. Thankfully, a new generation has taken the baton and is increasingly pressuring corporate America to take a stand on racism and bigotry.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is being torn down in statehouses across the United States.<\/p>\n

Still, I am not without hope.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t view hope as a passive pursuit.\u00a0 Progress will only be made with action and not by a docile going \u201cquietly into the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a community and as a nation, we should demand that Congress passes\u00a0The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act\u00a0<\/em>(H.R. 1280),\u00a0<\/em>which:<\/p>\n