All My Trials

So much discussion about the non-indictment of Michael Brown's killer. It seems every cop is granted double 'O' status when they leave the academy. Fourteen children have been killed by cops since that fateful day in August. Lots of analysis; lots of punditry. My favorite platitude this week? "We live in a nation of laws" A lot of well meaning people have been trying to answer the question "Why isn't Darren Wilson being charged with ... something?" Here's my attempt at an answer.

Look around 

Past row houses in Ferguson Missouri

Down the long antebellum rows of cotton

Look

Beyond the police line; the race line

The scarred line 

Jagged across Old Glory’s tattered furls

Look how it connects the money, the congressmen, the cops

And smell it … can you smell it?

The smoke, the tear gas, the rage

Ferguson is burning

Across the years, Atlanta is burning 

Resentment still settling

Like soot on sons of the south

Listen

Deep down in your soul

Listen

Your granddads Klan is tryin’ to be heard

“Lose your job?  … The colored man took it”

“High taxes?  … Shiftless welfare bums”

 “Angry? Afraid? … White privilege my ass!”

Now

Do you feel it?

Drumbeats pulsing in your brain

Feel it

A familiar tune

Faintly rising to the pounding beat

Hum it with me … Sing it with me

This is our song

“Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton …”