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Protest Reflection Imani's Poem

P eventMonday, 22 July 2024

This month has  marked  me with the video on George Floyd and his last words, ‘I can’t Breathe… Mama, mama!’  The subsequent collective actions and protests of peoples all over the world, crying out …. Black lives matter!...  echoed in my heart and prayer. With Anne Christopher and Akeneta, we joined  the millenials  of all colors in one protest at the Fairmount Parkway in front of the Museum of Philadelphia. As has become familiar, the messages on their posters, clearly showed the   awakening to a new level of awareness of systemic injustice in the world, the suffering it causes and of the role each of us play in perpetuating these systems. This deepened my conviction that racial injustice  can only be substantially overcome by collective good.

Weekly prayer reflections with the PCMR Young Adults (African-American, Haitians, Cameroonians, Nigerians, Spanish, Filipino) led to a lot of listening and sharing of actual experiences, revealing: When one part is hurt, we all share in that pain, and if one part is liberated, we all share in the joy.  Questions were asked:  If the acceptance of that invitation to solidarity with the larger pain of the world is what it means to be a ‘Christian,” How can we all grow and change together?  

IMANI SCOTT, an African American young woman shares her poem-reflection.....

Corona virus

Here to take away ourselves

Here to take away our friends

Here to take away our family members

 

2020

The year of rebirth

Pandemic

Police Brutality

Lives lost

Black lives matter

 

God’s in control

Humans run nothing

 

2020

The year of rebirth

Riots

Marches

We just want to be heard

 

Presidents reflecting on the great they’ve done

While the America we see is in ruins

Who will lift it up out of the trenches?

 

We reopen now

Over 100,000 deaths from the corona virus in the U.S.

Did we close our country too late?

And did we reopen too soon

 

Police brutality

Just respect the officers they say

If you’re not doing anything wrong, what is there to worry about

No longer true

Was it ever true?

 

Police brutality

Black lives lost

Brothers and sisters

Buried in the dust

 

2020

A year of rebirth

Don’t run to humans for restoration

But to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

 

Reclaim The holy spirit in your heart

 

2020

A year of healing

 

Juneteenth is here.

155 years ago.

June 19th, 1865.

A celebration of our freedom

From the enslavement of Africans in America

Our president wanted to rally today.

Make America great again

He says

But politics are inappropriate for such a day and time

 

We will see

We will see

Let us bow our heads as we remember our ancestors

Some today

Some yesterday

Some this year

Some so many years ago

 

Some say get over it

But I don’t think I ever will

We pray and we continue on with our lives

But let us never forget

 

2020 By: Imani A. Scott

May we never forget...