[VD: A black person stands at a podium. They say, “There is no war on police. There is no such thing as a blue life. The thin blue line is a tantrum of immature and petulant adult children. If your egos are too fragile to accept the rightful criticism of your tactics, then quit. If you can’t do your job without somebody constantly hovering over your shoulder, then say it. We’ll hold your timid hands at every step. You’ve already forfeited any career aspirations you may have had. We live here, y'all have made it abundantly clear that you all just work here. If accountability makes you uncomfortable, go somewhere else. Atlanta has no place for you. The police have shown time and time again that the training they’ve been given isn’t interested in de-escalation, conflict resolution, or preservation of life. If I had 57 bullets, I could assassinate every member in this chamber with three shots each and still have nine bullets left over. I dare any single one of you to tell me that you believe that is justified, reasonable or acceptable as standard operating procedure. Wars have been fought over, much less. What’s the difference between a bullet and a cop? If a bullet kills someone, you’ll know it’s been fired. If you have a problem, call the police. Then you’ll have two problems: money or violence. You seem to only respond to these two categories using one to beget the other. Can’t even get the correct dates on your signed off warrants, but expect us to believe that you have the competency and due diligence for a 100 million dollar project that we have told you repeatedly that we do not need and we do not want.The May 31 deployment of militarized police units on a residential street to raid a bail fund on suspicion of white collar financial crimes is tyrannical. Tyrannical entities must be demolished by any means necessary. You have the option to resign willingly, be cast out politically, or be removed violently. The choice you make today on this bill will be inextricably linked to the method that will be chosen. You will vote no. You will vote no. You will vote no. All of you will vote no today and you will re-plant every tree you uprooted a hundred times over. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. If you build it, we will burn it.” End VD.]
The water in your body is just visiting. It was a thunderstorm a week ago. It will be the ocean soon enough. Most of your cells come and go like morning dew. We are more weather pattern than stone monument. Sunlight on mist. Summer lightning. Your choices outweigh your substance.
(Poem from my first poetry collection: Field Guide to the Haunted Forest by Jarod K Anderson)
