The Hope

Amidst the horror, there was hope. The sheer number of people protesting, spread across the globe, who, after witnessing such an atrocity, took to the streets, gave hope to many. It turns out, we’re not alone, those of us who can feel the pain of others. There are literally billions of us. It restores some measure of faith in humanity.

But, closer to home, the hope was more basic. Any system that emboldens it’s police force in such a way that a single member believes he can make a snuff-film, with a live audience, in the streets of Anytown, USA and get away with it – well, that’s a broken system.

It’s not as if this was somehow an isolated incident, an aberration, something that rarely occurs. We all know, it happens a lot. And it has for a very long time. The difference here was the public nature of it, and the cold, callous eyes of the perpetrator.

Everybody thought, “Surely, something this horrific, this public, will bring about change.” Some people were so outraged there were even calls to abolish or defund the police! Four years later, little has changed. The statistics bear this out.

However, whatever present we are facing, we can never give up hope, or the future is lost.