Tuesday, December 9, 2014

15 Minutes


This was the "Black Lives Matter" demonstration that took place in the engineering building on my daughter's college campus early this afternoon. The lie-in (I just can't bring myself to call it a "die-in") lasted 15 minutes—one minute for each of the 11 times Eric Garner said, "I can't breathe" to the Staten Island cops who choked the life out of him, and one minute for each hour that Michael Brown's body lay in the street in Ferguson. The students are in the midst of final exams, but my daughter felt it important to be there to help make a statement. I picked her out in this photo immediately. I'm grateful for the idealism of so many of this generation now taking the stage.


16 comments:

  1. Bless her and bless all of these young ones who care.

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  2. A few years ago all I was hearing was how the current generation had dropped the ball on the Civil Rights movement and how they didn't appreciate what was done for them, It seems to me that they found that ball and have picked it back up.

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    1. Lisa, they give me a lot of hope, these ones coming up.

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  3. What would we do without our youth and their idealism? They do cause change. I only wish everyone in this picture was part of this lie-in.

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    1. Birdie, i love their peaceful passion. i think even those in this photo who are not part of the protest are being somehow changed by it.

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  4. I too am so grateful for your daughter and her generation. They will make all the difference.

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    1. NOLA darling, they are already making a difference in my own sense of optimism and hope.

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  5. It makes a powerful statement doesn't it? I have to wonder how that person in the lower right corner can sit there, blithely typing on his/her computer, while that goes on nearby. I think if I were that person I would have to join in!

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    1. Steve, it's a very promising sign that young people think they can change things.

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  6. it's brilliant: it's visual; it's peaceful; it's in-your-face; and it's absolutely critical.

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    1. susan, all those things, yes. i remember you recommended cornell for my girl way back when. i think you were prescient.

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