I Can't Breathe

There is COVID-19 and it’s effects and yet what makes it neither admissible, nor tolerable is the RACIAL PANDEMIC that has lasted in this country for centuries.

It was not addressed in the Declaration of Independence which always required the amendment which states that ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF WHATEVER COLOR THEY MIGHT BE ARE EQUAl. THE CIVIL WAR AND the countervailing ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT took until the time of Martin Luther King to start to resolve. The past years, since we saw the first black man elected to the White House, have seemed to make us take a step backwards. We have seen the emergence of blatant white supremacy, with its own groups, as well as the continued generally racist behavior throughout society.

The pandemia of racism requires a transformation of understanding of who we are at an essential level as well as a shift in our ontology of behavior. I thought the USA was the beacon light and pray we can recover it. All levels of society need to wake up to this and become militant, not as in riots, but in the in tolerability of a systemic racial and caste system. These words are an example of a lack of peace and justice and in order to awaken both need to be in balance.

One must be actively anti-racism. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever one sees it, including in ourselves. There is a call to everyone to take action in their local communities and support their black brothers and sisters in the fight they have been fighting all of their lives. As Joe Biden said the other day, “none of us any longer can hear the words ‘I can’t breath’ - and do nothing.”

- Carlos Warter MD, United Nations Peace Messenger

These are the last words of George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who died as US police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him down, kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, until he suffocated:

“It's my face man I didn't do nothing serious man please, please, please I can't breathe please man, please somebody please man, I can't breathe. I can't breathe, please (inaudible) man can't breathe, my face just get up,I can't breathe please (inaudible) I can't breathe sh*t, I will, I can't move, mama, mama. I can't, my knee, my nuts I'm through, I'm through I'm claustrophobic, my stomach hurt, my neck hurts, everything hurts, some water or something, please, please I can't breathe officer, don't kill me, they gon' kill me man come on man, I cannot breathe I cannot breathe. They gon' kill me, they gon' kill me I can't breathe, I can't breathe please sir, please please, please I can't breathe.”

George Floyd, October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020