I feel so very powerless. I share grief and shame and frustration with the US, but I am so far away. Every time I contact police stations of areas where I used to live, asking for them to affirm their attempts and plans to improve their policing and stop this senseless killing, I am so aware of the fact that my voice is calling out from very far away.
When I was in San Francisco this spring, I saw a police officer break a young, cooperative black man's arm. I tried to intervene, I took a photo, I took a badge number and I contact the station. Had it been a few years prior, I would have said that I was an SF tax payer, that I was an SF citizen, that I was a member of that community and that I was outraged. But I felt unheard as a visitor from abroad.
Don't get me wrong, I am a tax-payer. I am an American citizen and I pay my federal taxes and I vote in the elections that I'm allowed to. But I feel so helpless. I feel like my words fall flat when I try to reach out as an ally.
So today I'm reaching out and trying to find all the ways that I can help. Seeing where I can donate, what I can share, whom I can contact. In the meantime, I'm trying to be a responsible and involved citizen of my adopted home.
Maybe it's easier to be sad that they people around you are not feeling the grief and outrage you are when you're abroad. I suspect that it'd feel a hell of a lot worse to feel this alone in grief in the US.
When I was in San Francisco this spring, I saw a police officer break a young, cooperative black man's arm. I tried to intervene, I took a photo, I took a badge number and I contact the station. Had it been a few years prior, I would have said that I was an SF tax payer, that I was an SF citizen, that I was a member of that community and that I was outraged. But I felt unheard as a visitor from abroad.
Don't get me wrong, I am a tax-payer. I am an American citizen and I pay my federal taxes and I vote in the elections that I'm allowed to. But I feel so helpless. I feel like my words fall flat when I try to reach out as an ally.
So today I'm reaching out and trying to find all the ways that I can help. Seeing where I can donate, what I can share, whom I can contact. In the meantime, I'm trying to be a responsible and involved citizen of my adopted home.
Maybe it's easier to be sad that they people around you are not feeling the grief and outrage you are when you're abroad. I suspect that it'd feel a hell of a lot worse to feel this alone in grief in the US.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen