On My Soapbox Today

My son is twenty.  He’s run almost every day of his life since sixth grade. As he grew, his route grew longer and further from our home, into other neighborhoods. While I sometimes wished he’d bundle up more or wear more reflective gear, I never gave a worry about his returning home.  One of his best friends also runs, but I bet his mother worries when he goes out to train.  His mother shouldn’t have to worry any more than I do.  She should be able to trust that the community in which both our sons live, is a place that cherishes all humanity. 

The tragedy of Ahmaud Arbrey’s death is not merely the senselessness and absolute wrongness of Gregory and Travis McMichael’s thinking and actions, but also the sustained non-response of those entrusted with ensuring those who commit actual crimes (murder) face justice.  Failure to act is tacit acceptance and allowance for such actions.  If this weren’t enough tragedy, armchair experts on social media have attempted mental yoga to somehow justify the killing of Ahmaud, the voiced suspicions of the McMichaels, and the nearly two and a half month delay in filing charges, given that the authorities held the video from the day after the shooting.   National uproar prompted movement in the case, not the mother’s pain, not the actual footage, and not a sense of the need to ensure justice for all citizens when a crime is committed.   

Some have even argued that it was legal for the McMichaels to pursue Arbrey. 
If the laws of Georgia permit the actions of the McMichaels, by that same reasoning, it would be legitimate for outraged citizens who recognized the McMichaels committed a crime, to hunt them down with trucks and use lethal force without being charged.   Since no state operates under a Wild Wild West vigilante type form of law enforcement, it seems ridiculous to make such a claim.  

Some on social media have argued that why should we worry about this injustice when there are other injustices even worse, as if arguing for justice in this circumstance, somehow prevents or dilutes the capacity of a society to seek remedy for other injustices.  Pointing out an injustice is not a tit-for-tat type equation in conversation or policy that requires we do equal time for all injustices in order to discuss the one presented before us in reality today. 

As Catholics, we are obligated to lead, to speak out when someone is treated in a way as less than human. It is an opportunity to identify with the crucified, rather than those who condemn. It is a call for each of us to make sure we watch the sons and daughters who run or play or bike or go about the business of life with the eyes of mothers and fathers who love, rather than strangers who fear.   It is a call for each of us to remind all we know, that society will only be just when we cease to allow injustice to go unchecked or unmarked.  

It shouldn’t take courage to speak up against the wrongs done to Arbrey’s family, and to Ahmaud himself, it should be easy.  However, if we are afraid to speak out against what was done to Ahmaud, it reveals how much work we have to do.  

Want to do more?  Write your own letter.  Speak up when you see someone dismissing this case as the latest attempt by the media to do whatever it is...and keep an eye out on everyone's child, no matter how old they are, to make sure they're all safe, and they all make it home.