By Nellie Curtiss …
The heat in the atmosphere, not to mention the hot opinions makes voices sound humid and sticky. I’m talking about injustices like Russia’s war on Ukraine, Brittney Griner’s nine-year sentence an obvious political ploy by Russia’s Vladimir Putin or the February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin murder by George Zimmerman and his “not guilty” trial verdict. This week’s news offers some reprieve to all these families as Attorney General Merrick Garland federally indicted four officers who killed, more like assassinated Breonna Taylor peacefully sleeping in her home.
It feels like I live in a dog’s mouth sometimes with all the lack of fairness in our judicial system. Mind you, it’s not just the system but it’s the way people analyze or rather don’t analyze the evidence that grows rancid. How did Alex Jones’ rants get so far and how did so many people buy his misinformation about Sandy Hook Massacre being staged and faked? Thankfully, a jury has ordered he pay some $4 million to two Sandy Hook parents.
A cocker spaniel out in the rain that night that Trayvon was searching for Skittles would have wagged her stubby tail and met Trayvon with comfort and friendly woofs. Someone truly considering the neighborhood good that night would have offered Trayvon a ride home –out of the rain. What good comes from racially profiling like that Zimmerman did?
“Standing your ground is another senseless law,” as women are heard saying in coffee shops and television news shows, even now 2 years since that sickening event when Ahmaud Arbery was targeted by vigilantes under the guise of protecting a neighborhood. We all should make right what has rotted our judicial system; the world should not be all about guns and shooting others but should reflect the compassion that walked the earth as yin-yang, goddess or god, prophet or prophetess, or as a wiser-worded nun or monk; justice should also be about harmonizing notes, strumming steel strings, and sounding trumpets against legal but cruel walls and thrones.
Why can’t we elevate the female spirit, the Native American Mandella spirit, Nelson Mandela’s peace promise, or that nurturing nature in us to rise up once again instead of celebrating alpha-ism of wanna-be cops let loose on unsuspecting hooded teens out for a snack run before 7:30 p.m. What happened to us? Didn’t we used to offer others rides home? What happened?
It feels like I live in a dog’s mouth considering the gun-rack of hatred and fires that belittles our humanity. If our world is sheathed in a dog’s mouth, let’s freshen up the wheeze with herbal and spiritual remedies like mint, lavender, chamomile, breathing meditations, letter campaigns to legislators, and prayer circles where we find our calm and connectedness.
Nelda Curtiss is a retired college educator and long-time local columnist. Reach her at http://www.columnsbynellie.com or email her at columnsbynellie@gmail.com
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