Let True Freedom Live
By Mary Frances Walton, Contributing Writer
Luke 8:17 says, “For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light.” On July 17, 2014, in Staten Island, New York, Eric Garner refused to be handcuffed after being accused of illegally selling loose cigarettes. He died after saying he couldn’t breathe 11 times as officers forced him to the pavement.
On March 13, 2020, police officers from Louisville, Kentucky’s Metro Police Department’s Criminal Interdiction Division used a no-knock warrant to enter Breonna Taylor’s home, shooting her five times. She subsequently died.
On March 15, 2020, a pandemic known as the COVID-19 erupted that is spread when people talk, cough, or sneeze. Personal prevention such as handwashing, staying home when sick, and environmental cleaning and disinfecting areas are important principles that lessen the spread of this deadly coronavirus.
Most state governments in the United States placed shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders and advised practicing social or physical distancing as a way to combat the spread of COVID-19. Only essential personnel were expected to work.
On May 25, 2020, police were called after George Floyd allegedly used a fake $20 bill to make a purchase. Floyd told Minneapolis police officers he “could not breathe” at least 20 times as one officer was kneeling on his throat for eight minutes and 46 seconds. He then passed out and subsequently died.
After Floyd’s death, demonstrations and protests have been fearless. In the midst of all of these overwhelming circumstances, parents were teleworking, students were distance learning, and families are living together and surviving in an environment that is quite unfamiliar to everyone.
The next steps are to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize. We plan to wear masks and fully comply with COVID-19 precautions from Dr. Fauci, the Center for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization; complete the 2020 Census; and voter registration.
The 2020 Census counts the population in the US and the five US territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. The census provides critical data that lawmakers, business owners, teachers, and many others use to provide daily services, products, and support for you and your community. The 2020 Census will mark the 24th time that the country has counted its population since 1790. Since the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, voter engagement efforts have played a vital role in our democratic process.
Organize and get registered voters to the polls and the continual removal of controversial monuments, especially Confederate monuments, statues, and symbols that have been the subject of nationwide debate. The strategy is to live free by fighting for race equity, health, education, and the abundant economic success of our government.
We must also mobilize with the arrest of the officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor. Take action so that the funding disparities of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provides federal dollars to public and private schools by the US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, is in the form of “equitable services” for low-income public school students. Examine, act, rethink, and rewrite the “Officers Bill of Rights” and the “Justice Policing Act of 2020.”
Finally, be a part of the heartbeat transformation process by renewing the minds and hearts of people to what is true, right, and pure in the unabridged history of the US. Habakkuk 2:2-3 says, “Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.”
Mary Frances Walton is a member Community of Hope AME Church in Community of Hope AME Church in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland, where the Rev. Tony Lee is the pastor.
