19 Februrary 2018 (uploaded to Twitter @EighteenX18) USA
This amazing 15 year old poet is Samuel Getachew. He is on Twitter @samuel_sgd
After Philando Castilles murderer was acquitted of all charges, I thought a lot about how he told officers he was permitted to carry a handgun
I thought a lot about the second amendment, how it doesn’t seem to apply to everyone
How a black man with a gun is a threat
But a white man with a gun is a patriot.
Or how a black child playing with a toy gun in a park is thug
But a white man with an AK47 strapped to his belt in a grocery store is a patriot
Or how a black woman firing a warning shot to her abuser is a danger to society
But a white man with a gun showing up to the memorial of a victim of police brutality is a patriot
Or how a black child with some skittles is one of those asssholes that always gets away.
But a white man with a gun following a 17 year old around in his gated community is still a patriot
Still has the right to stand his ground
And I think that too often we forget that Trayvon Martin wasn’t killed by the police,
Just by a white man with a gun on neighbourhood watch who fancied himself God for the evening
Thought he’d decide who lived, and who died that day
I find it fascinating
How the right to bear arms comes second only to free speech, but is eleven amendments above outlawing slavery.
I wonder when we got our priorities so out of order.
And as I sat at home on the Fourth of July
And listened to the sound of fireworks go on for hours.
I wondered to myself.
When did America fall so in love with the sound of gunshots?
That she wanted to hear them on her birthday.