I watched a human life slipping away. Not from disease, a car accident, a random gunshot, or from any one of countless ways to die. A police officer was pressing, pressing, squeezing his knee into the neck of a human being who was completely restrained, face down on street pavement. I tried to imagine myself down on that pavement gasping, begging, crying, losing control of my bladder. I tried to imagine myself standing by, wanting to help that man on the ground. But I am afraid that I might be slammed to the pavement myself, beat up, shot or arrested.
This is who we are, America. This is American institutions, American history, American hate, American fear, American ignorance, American prejudice, American injustice, American pain.
God bless America – we need all the help we can get.
