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Is There Redemption on the Road to Justice?
Reflections following the Derek Chauvin trial
Courtesy Trevor Hughes/USA Today | Imaged grabbed from Blackpast.org
Two days following the death of George Perry Floyd, Jr., I wrote a blog piece entitled “The Day I Mattered,” which was posted on my personal blog site. I reflected on an incident in my own life where I felt seen rather than unseen. Granted, my experience was comparatively innocuous to the experience of George Floyd, whose life was extinguished at the knee of Derek Chauvin. But I was attempting to make a bigger point — i.e., that George Floyd was not seen as a human being. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was treated as nothing more than an insect to be exterminated without remorse or afterthought. George Floyd was treated as though his life did not matter.
George Floyd was a man. A Black man. A son. A brother. He was a cousin, a father, and a friend. In short, George Floyd was a human being who was loved by many.
The sanctity of humanity posits that we are all equal in the sight of God. It is the realization that everyone is as human as I am. Race does not matter. Behavior does not matter. Gender does not matter. Status does not matter. We are all human beings, born of a woman, created by God, in the image of God.
During his closing arguments, Prosecutor Steve Schleicher advanced the notion that this case was about power…
