VOICES FOR THE RECORD

George Floyd’s last words were, “I CAN’T BREATHE!”  But his voice lives on in the recorded words of others. 

FIRST, LISTEN

“In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.”

Rev. Martin Luther King

“Rather than just condemning or applauding protesters, Americans should listen closely to what they’re demanding.”

Editorial Board of The New York Times

“Stop Killing Us!” 

3-year-old carrying a sign at a Tampa protest

“This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place.“                                                                         Former President George W. Bush 

“His heart is in the right place, but he’s just like every other white person who thinks they’re an ally but is not listening to people on how to be an ally.”

                                                                        Ashton Woods, BLM, on Joe Biden’s police reform remarks

“I walk with Floyd.  I know that I’m going to be his voice.”

                                                                        Maurice Lester Hall, George Floyd’s passenger friend

WHITE PEOPLE--NOT BLACK PEOPLE--CREATED RACISM

“White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it and white society condones it.”

President Johnson’s Kerner Commission study of inequality

“Dehumanizing people debases us all; humanity is beautifully and almost infinitely diverse. The bonds of our common humanity must overcome the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.”                                                              Former President Jimmy Carter

“No one deserves to die the way George Floyd did. And the truth is, if you’re white in America, the chances are you won’t. That truth is what underlies the pain and the anger that so many are feeling and expressing — that the path of an entire life can be measured and devalued by the color of one’s skin. Fifty-seven years ago, Dr. King dreamed of a day when his “four little children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Today, that dream seems even more out of reach, and we’ll never reach it if we keep treating people of color with the unspoken assumption that they’re less human.”

                                                                        Former President Bill Clinton

“See me, I’m human.”

                                                                        Former President Barack Obama

“You can see the legacy of racism in our mortality data.  In Michigan, African-Americans have suffered 40 percent of all deaths from Covid-19 yet make up only about 14 percent of the population….With enough time and money, I am optimistic we will develop a vaccine to inoculate us from one infection.  But we must bring the equivalent commitment to the cause of healing the racial divide that continues to blight the United States.”

                                                                        Governor Gretchen Whitmer, (D-MI)

  

FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP

“He did not pray.  He did not mention George Floyd, he did not mention the agony of people who have been subjected to this kind of horrific expression of racism and white supremacy for hundreds of years. We need a president who can unify and heal.  He has done the opposite of that, and we are left to pick up the pieces.”

Bishop Mariann E. Budde, Episcopal Diocese of Washington

“Donald Trump stoked the fires raging across America. And then he went and hid in the basement.”

                                                                                    Umair Haque, social economist

“Let me just say this to the President of the United States on behalf of the police chiefs of this country, please, if you don’t have something constructive to say, keep your mouth shut, because you’re putting men and women in their early 20s at risk.  It’s not about dominating. It’s about winning hearts and minds."

Art Acevedo, Houston Chief of Police, to Christiane Amanpour

“Donald Trump has turned this country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears…. Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? Is this what we want to pass on to our children and our grandchildren? Fear, anger, finger pointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety, self-absorption, selfishness? We are in a battle for the soul of this nation. Who we are. What we believe. And maybe most important — who we want to be."

                                                                                    Former Vice President Joe Biden

THE AUDACITY OF VOTE

"The things they had in there were crazy. They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."

                                                President Donald Trump, on Democratic proposal to make voting easier in pandemic

“I am not at all certain we will be able to conduct a free and fair election in November or have a peaceful transition of presidential power in January.  We are edging toward a cultural civil war, only this time we are not lucky:  Abraham Lincoln is not the president.”

                                                                        Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times

 

“It is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. Now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize. It is time to beat up prosecutors you don’t like at the voting booth. It is time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs and deputy chiefs. I’d like to appreciate our mayor for talking to us like a black mama and telling us to take our ass home, and I’d like to thank my friends for convincing me to come here.”

                                                Killer Mike, at Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom’s press conference

“Let’s do this another way.  Let’s stop thinking that our voice don’t matter.  Let’s vote!  Not just for the president, for everybody.  Educate yourself!  Educate yourself!  Don’t wait for somebody else to tell you who’s who.  Educate yourself and know who you’re voting for.”                                                                                            Terrence Floyd, George Floyd's brother

And I would say to the American people, let’s shift this to where it needs to be. To the voting booth.  Pay attention to the hearts of the people we elect.  And the reason this happens is because too many people right now in this country that are throwing bricks and damaging property never bother to vote.  So you have a choice.  Lift up your voice, be heard in the voting booth, and continue to march peacefully.  Let’s engage and do what we can control, which is our own actions, our own hearts, and exercise, without fail, our right to vote. ”                                                            Art Acevedo, Houston Chief of Police, to Christiane Amanpour

 

ON POLICE REFORM

“When it comes to reform, America’s police leaders have long been content to kick the can down the road because making real change is so hard. In most cities, chiefs of police are hired for their ability to communicate with the public, to reassure people and to know what to say to skeptics. These are important skills, but they do not equal an ability to reach deep into an organization that has an entrenched culture and a reactionary union, and bend it toward modernity.”

                                                                                    Brandon del Pozo, NYC police officer for 19 years

BULLIES IN THE PULPIT 

“You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run all over you, you’ll look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate, and you have to arrest people, and you have to try people and they have to go to jail for long periods of time.”                                             President Donald Trump, transcript of call with governors

“One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers. But local law enforcement in some cities desperately needs backup, while delusional politicians in other cities refuse to do what’s necessary to uphold the rule of law.”

                                                                        Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)

ABUSE OF POWER

“The slide of the United States into illiberalism may well have begun on June 1, 2020. Remember the date. There is no precedent in modern U.S. history for a president to wield federal troops in a state or municipality over the objections of the respective governor. Right now, the last thing the country needs—and, frankly, the U.S. military needs—is the appearance of U.S. soldiers carrying out the president’s intent by descending on American citizens….Trump was clear he views those engaged in the unrest and criminal acts in these riots as terrorists, an enemy. He said so, ostensibly as justification to deploy the U.S. military to apply federal force — his ‘personal’ force — against the riots.”

                                                                        John Allen, US Marine Corps, ret., former NATO commander

“Every member of the U.S. military swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the values embedded within it. This document is founded on the essential principles that all men and women are born free and equal and should be treated with respect and dignity. It also gives Americans the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. We all committed our lives to the idea that is America.  We will stay true to that oath and the American people.”

                                                                        General Mark A. Milley, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff

“The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act now.”

                                                                        Mark T. Esper, Secretary of Defense

 

“Our founding fathers feared the use of a standing army that could be used to further the aims of a dictator…. The idea of ‘boots on the ground’ and ‘dominating the battlespace’ in our American cities is anathema to America.”

                                                                        James Stavridis, 16^th Supreme Allied Commander NATO

“We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.  Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.”

                                                                         General James Mattis, former Secretary of Defense

“He said, ‘I’m ready to send in military troops if the nation’s governors don’t act to quell the violence that has rocked American cities.’ A matter of fact, he spoke of them as being jerks. You just don’t do that, Mr. President. It isn’t cool!”

                                                                        Pat Robertson, televangelist

“I’ve seen this kind of violence [referring to the clearing of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square]….This is what autocrats do.  This is what happens in countries before a collapse.  It really does unnerve me.”

                                                                                                Gail Heilt, former CIA analyst

“If your question is, ‘Should you use tear gas to clear a path so the president can go have a photo op,’ the answer is no.”

                                                                                                Sen. Tim Scott, (R-SC)

“There is no right to riot, no right to destroy others’ property, and no right to throw rocks at police.  But there is a fundamental—a Constitutional—right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop.”                                                                              Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NB)

LITTLE GREEN MEN-JUST LIKE UKRAINE

“It completely undermines the ability to hold law enforcement personnel who engage in misconduct accountable.  You’ve got to know who they are, and certainly which agency they represent.”

                                    Michael Bromwich, former Inspector General, Dept. of Justice, on unidentified troops

THE REAL LOOTING

“At a time when over forty million people are unemployed, losing health insurance not just for themselves but for their families, and many unable to put food on the table let alone pay their rent or mortgage, the wealthiest people in the nation are going to be avoiding $82 billion dollars of tax liability. Before we chastise these demonstrators for looting a Target, maybe we should pause and consider the real looting taking place. Instead of smearing these protestors and erasing their message because of the actions of a few, perhaps we should think about how in one of the worst economic crises this country has ever faced in its history, the richest among us are taking our money to make themselves richer.”

                                                                        Lauren Martinchek, on tax law change in stimulus bill

DOUBLE STANDARDS

"I'm not going to critique other people's performances."

                                                            Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Trump’s walk thru Lafayette Square

“I think President Obama should have kept his mouth shut.  You know, we know he doesn’t like much this administration is doing. That’s understandable. But I think it’s a little bit classless frankly to critique an administration that comes after you.”

                                                                                    Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

OUTRAGE

“Reportedly a teenage girl in Minneapolis shot point blank with a rubber bullet. How the fuck is this possible????? I ran the image through Tineye, comes up legit and recent…….I’m feeling very helpless at the moment, I want to be there and yet I can’t get on a plane and leave…..Fuck Donald Trump”

                                                                                    C., an ex-pat photographer

COURAGE

“'Alone we can achieve so little; together we can achieve so much.' – Helen Keller"

                                                                                                                Tiffany Trump on Twitter

“We are here to show that regardless of what is happening to our health we refuse to run.  We refuse to live in fear.”

Unidentified masked protester, Washington, D.C.

“Seized by Law Enforcement”

U. S. Postal Service tracking number notice for BLM masks

WE’VE GOT TO GET OUR COUNTRY OPEN AGAIN

“Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon.”

                                                                                    President Donald Trump

“If what you mean, Mr. President, by opening the country is that we white people have to open our minds to the fact that we created racism, and that we white people have to open our hearts to the responsibility to end racism by working together with people of all colors, if that's what you mean, then by all means, Mr. President, let’s get our country open and get it open soon.  We’ve got a lot of work to do!  Because until our hearts and minds are truly open, we can’t breathe.”

                                                                                    Marilyn Johnston, concerned citizen

Keep it real!  Wear your mask!

Marilyn