MY DAY: A TALE OF TWO AMERICAS
Earlier this week we were eye witness to two distinct differences in America. One a celebration. The other a tragedy. One in Washington, DC. The other in Baltimore. Both in the same time zone. Minutes apart in timing and distance. One was history making. The other history repeating itself. One a female. The other male. Both were African America. One was alive with a promotion. The other dead with no resume. One was an outsider. The other highly respected. One young and troubled. The other breaking the glass ceiling. And. . . both drew a crowd.
These two tales of life in America just left me emotional blank. I did not see the day as one of celebration for anyone. Can you imagine this as your first day on the job? What are you thinking? With everyone in America, rich or poor, job or homeless, carrying a camera, you have to face a cameras and talk about strength, challenging and trust? Add to this. . . the continuing state of circumstances before us, we surely need something more to believe in.
Weeks before one of the largest holiday of the year, Mothers, around the world, are watching another black woman they do not know sit through a lengthy funeral wondering what happened. Fathers and mentors are heavy with questions that have no answers. How insensitive of us to approve televising a funeral anyway. This “movie” is a re run. We know what the ending will be. This “movie” has the same plot, the same storyline and the same conclusion. The characters remain the same, the costuming (uniforms) is consistent and the script is masterfully rehearsed played in different cities with the appropriate dialect.
When you take an indepth look into the tale of two Americas, the confirmation of our new Attorney General started out with mayhem. The President called her five month delayed nomination to confirmation “crazy” in one press setting and “embarrassing and a lot of political gamesmanship” later on. The confirmation was held up because of a deliberate impasse in the Senate that had more to do with the President’s executive decisions than the qualified attorney’s new title.
While Loretta Lynch was taking the oath of office as the nation’s Attorney General, a bereaved family down the street was preparing to give their twenty-five(25)year old loved one, Freddie Gray, a Christian funeral. There exist not an inch of peace, trust and celebration in these change of events.
I will have to close and conclude that these two Americas do indeed have a common denominator. Loretta Lynch and the twenty something Freddie Grays of America are both “lightning rods”.
History will not be kind to us for these eye witness distinct differences held in the 21st century.
Ester Davis can be reached at
Email: estyler2000@aol.com or
214.376.9000.
