More bloodshed in France

July 14, 2016.

Location: Nice, France. Bastille Day (a National Holiday) celebration

A man drives a truck (lorry) through the crowd, mowing down civilians. 84 deaths reported so far, with over a hundred injured. A few civilians made efforts to stop the truck, including one cyclist who was run over. The attacker was shot and killed by police.

I feel as if the more resigned, the more desensitized we become to violence, the less we feel the need to help. Empathy deigns us, normally kind and loving people, frozen in place. The more we do not feel in control and the more we feel helpless, the more we defend ourselves by not caring.

We should we shocked, angry, scared, confused, hurt. These are people like us with families, friends, communities, dreams and aspirations. They garden, go to the movies, tell their children bedtime stories. Those who commit mass murder have no such concept of humanity and no respect for human lives.

We cannot stoop so low as to feel the same.

At the same time, emotions can make us numb. We must feel, but not too much as to overwhelm us. Problems are more overwhelming if you take them all in at once, and all seems lost.

Yes, all lives matter. But we don't act like it.

“All lives matter”. It’s a nice thing to say, but it misses the point. Some lives, according to policies, people in power and other citizens, don’t matter as much. They are more easily wasted and forgotten. Compared to your race, another race is being discriminated against and yours isn’t- so we HAVE to make statements like “Black lives matter” to get this point across- black lives matter but we aren’t acting like they do. 

Everyone faces discrimination of some kind at some time in their lives, but some will face more than others.

Discrimination is linked with higher rates of mental illness and disease, and poverty. PTSD is linked with racial discrimination. 

Discriminators are not limited by social class or financial class.

You may walk the streets safe, but others avert their gaze so as not to look “menacing”. You may drive carefully around the cops, but others are more likely to be pulled over or stopped on the streets by police if they are not even breaking the law. Some are afraid of cops. No one should be afraid of authority. That is not leadership or protection, but tyranny.

You are not facing the problems they are. You have your own unique struggles, but yours may also be common to them, plus all of this crap, all for the stupid pigments in their skin.

Black lives matter is a fight for equality, equality to *you*. Equality to all other citizens. The same goes with feminism fighting for equality for women- it is not about being better, nor about putting others beneath you, but about creating equality where there are currently discrepancies.

You want the freedom to walk the streets, or in a crowded building or elevator, feeling safe? You have it. Others don’t. That's a very basic freedom being violated, and that's a problem.