Joseph Sabino Mistick: George Floyd, 1974-2020

When Aristotle said, “Towns should be built so as to protect their inhabitants and, at the same time, make them happy,” it was no mistake that he put “protect” first. People will never be happy unless they feel protected and are, in fact, protected.

But, since the days of slavery, black Americans have not been protected here. There have been some valiant measures toward that end: the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th and 14th and 15th Amendments, the political and educational enfranchisement offered by Reconstruction, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But most of these were cut short.

We started on the wrong foot by tolerating slavery in order to appease the Southern states and form a Union, and we never got our footing right, to this day.

As Joe Biden said last week, “The original sin of this country still stains our nation today, and sometimes we manage to overlook it. With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence.”

The killing of George Floyd was not the result of a rushed judgment call or split-second decision with a tragic result. This time, we were not squinting to watch the blurry and jerky and sometimes ambiguous footage from a police body camera.

The Minneapolis police officer who was squeezing the very last breath out of George Floyd stared into the cameras of the bystanders, daring them to stop him, and daring us all to do the right thing. And now we must.

It is a cruel paradox that our most grave problems demand the quickest solutions, yet they also require the greatest care. When so many of our fellow citizens have been denied the promise of America for so long, asking them to wait even longer is hard.

We can only hope this open killing of a black man by police officers who are sworn to protect and serve us all has snapped our leaders to attention, along with the rest of us. If so, our resolve may be the only immediate change, but that is the first step.

Police training and practice must be overhauled everywhere. The great majority of good and true police officers will welcome this. Those who think they can kill the promise of America by keeping our neighbors in fear must see that we are out of time on this.

Criminal justice reform has already been endorsed by both sides of the political spectrum. Many critical reforms aimed at mass incarceration and cash bail and equal legal representation for poor defendants are ready for legislative action.

Other things are important, too. If we are finally serious about protecting all Americans, we must provide health care, freedom from hunger, safe housing and a solid education. As we rebuild our economy in the coming months, we have a chance to get it right this time, to give everyone the opportunities they deserve.

And we must end voter suppression in every form.

There has been a curse on us. And until we wash the stain of racial bias from our communities and institutions, and from our own minds, we are doomed to live in this hell.