We at Hospitality House extend our gratitude to our sister communities as we celebrate Lunar New Year and Tet, the Year of the Rabbit and the Year of the Cat – acknowledging our shared roots and shared community around the globe.
Black History is human history, and we were reminded these past weeks with the pain and horror of gut-wrenching violence which tore at the soul of the Black community, and so many communities linked by suffering and anguish.
What does it say to us that one human being can harbor so much darkness and hate inside, for decades, simmering, smoldering – then lashing out with such horrific violence? What does it say about the plight of farmworkers, feeding others while starving themselves, hiding in plain sight? Lives cut short, families and communities ripped apart, with unimaginable cruelty.
And once again, another young black man, cut down in the prime of life. A poet. A dreamer. A floater. A father. A Lover of Sunsets. Beaten to death with a savagery that sears the soul. And with his dying breath: Calling. Out. For. His. Mother.
“I’m just trying to get home…”
These killers wore badges. The “protectors” were perpetrators. These sons of other mothers, savagely beat another mother’s son to death? Unimaginable grief. A. Gentle. Soul. Lost. Make no mistake, police violence is often about race. Often about class. Or both. But always. It. Is. About. Power. They believed that they could. That’s why.
Some. Mother’s. Son.
Amidst this river of tears, our mountain of woe, we must somehow summon the strength of the ancestors to lift us up, keep us swimming against the tide. The valley beyond the mountain.
As we celebrate Black History Month, we mark our ancestry, our global humanity, and our triumphs despite overwhelming odds. Song and struggle, inextricably linked.
And always, with every step, since 1619…
“Just trying to get home…”
Joseph T. Wilson
Executive Director
HOSPITALITY HOUSE
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