What is happening to America?
From the beginning of 2020, American has witnessed a tragedy that stole the lives of an NBA Legend, Kobe Bryant, and his daughter, Gigi, in a helicopter crash along with others who were on that flight. We are still mourning him. Tragedy continues crashing to American when there is a pandemic that has killed over 100,000 Americans. People lost their jobs. Companies and businesses had to shut down. The economy is getting worse than ever. While the government is still trying the best to reopen the economy of the U.S, well, another tragedy came. The death of an African American, George Floyd, has raised a furious rage among people in America.
Millions of people went down on street marching, protesting to get the justice back to George Floyd. Celebrities also posted on social media to show their support toward the death of George Floyd. The movement BLACK LIVES MATTER is born. We are all in this together and we hope that the justice will come to the family of George Floyd.
But on the other hand, we can see the dark side of those protests. Robbery and looting have happened. It is so strange and so ridiculous. The point of the protest is being turned down when there are some extremists from nowhere started to have actions that cannot be acceptable.
Sometimes I think that how all of those illegal actions can get justice for George Floyd and does he really want this to happen?
I watched all the videos on Facebook and Instagram about what is happening with this nation right now. I cannot understand why they did those actions. We can all agree that we go down the street, protesting and marching for change, for the equal and justice. At first, yes, that was the purpose. And then, after some videos exposed the dark side, I cannot bear it. They went to Target and took away whatever they wanted and left nothing inside. They went to every luxury store to steal and to get everything single stuff that they did not have money to buy. They destroyed every building, vandalized every construction, set on the fire and burned down. Those are big stores of big companies. What about small business? The income of one family depends on that small business. They have been upset because of COVID 19 which put a deep impact on their business and they still have to maintain it in a very difficult way or even they have to close. They have hoped that after COVID 19, they can reopen and welcome all the guests to buy and they can return back to normal. Of course, there will be many difficulties. Now, this? Just in the middle of the night, their businesses have gone. Some were burned down. Some were destroyed. Some, well, could not be saved.
It did not stop there. I am Vietnamese and I am proud to be Vietnamese. I never thought that Vietnamese would never do anything to make our bloodline shameful in a foreign country because, after the Fall of Saigon, millions of Vietnamese went on boats and fleeted away to the big sea to find the freedom because they did not want to live under the dictatorship of communism. Luckily, foreign countries around the world had opened their arms and hearts to welcome them and Vietnamese people never forgot. But then, there was an action that made me feel furious. There was a group of Vietnamese students stole liquors from a store and then guess what?They posted on Facebook story and even livestream. I disgusted by their action and the video is being shared everywhere right now and luckily they found out all the identities of 4 teenagers in the video. I hope that the law will have some types of punishment for them.
The crime of Derek Chauvin when he put his knees on George FLoyd’s neck must be prosecuted. The autopsy of George Floyd showed that he died of “asphyxiation from sustained pressure”. And it is considered as homicide. I am sure that everyone who got involved in George Floyd’s death should be brought out to the light to be punished by what they had done. Also it is the only way to make the family of George Floyd happy and himself in the other world. When the riots began, like every war, there must be someone sacrificed while they are doing the mission. There were two Federal Protective Service officers had died amid protests Friday night in Oakland, California. In my life, I always put the image of police officer on top next to the medical worker because they are trying to protect our lives from dangers and keep the peace in our neighborhood. There are so many type of people that we don’t know whether they are good or not. But not every police are bad. We cannot always assume that they are all bad and we do some crazy things against them. In all the riots around the U.S, police are always there to make sure that everyone is safe and they will act when bad things happen. That is the duty of a police officer. They put themselves in danger to protect the lives of others. Like during the Covid 19, all the healthcare workers have put them in the frontline to save lives of patients. Police had kneeled down to show respect and apologetic in the crowd of protest. I can see people shared all the posts that contained the video or photos of the riots. But there were some posts that shared the precious photos of love not hate; the united not the divide; the friendship not enemies. That is what the U.S must have and must do.
I suddenly remember the song of John Legend and Common, “Glory” which was introduced in movie Selma. In the song there was a sentence that I never forget. “Justice for all just ain’t specific enough/One son died, his spirit is revisitin’ us/Truant livin’ livin’ in us, resistance is us” . It really touched me because we can see that when there is injustice happened to one person in a community, we will not let it through, we will not forget and we will get the justice back. The whole nation is standing up and uniting more than ever amid the spread of Coronavirus. The pain of the family of George Floyd has to suffer right now is the pain of every American toward the system of this country. The voice of George Floyd has been heard by friends in the world. They marched on the street to show the support. Together, they hope others to see not only black lives matter but also many other lives matter. Every race matters.