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
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?
Black lives lost
Brothers and sisters
Buried in the dust
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
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
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...