Mariella Gattini

Actually, 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Plenty of time to think about what you are doing. Plenty of time to stop and save somebody’s life. 8 minutes and 46 seconds and you are out. That was the end of George Floyd under the knee of now former police officer Derek Chauvin—today charged with second-degree murder—and the physical oppression and mistreatment of three other policemen, who were finally charged with aiding and abetting to second-degree murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

We can not be there for George, but we can be there for his family, for his friends, and for the entire African-American community. Most people want to say the right words and do the right thing, but they don’t really know how.

If you don’t know me by now, everything I write has never been about me. Therefore, do not expect me to tell you my personal story, because this website is not designed for that purpose. This outlet is to identify the things we have in common, the strengths we can pull out as a team to keep going, and the instances that stop us in our tracks, shake us, horrify us, and make us think. And the demise of George Floyd is that precise heartache in need of analysis and meditation. There is nothing we can do for him, that’s absolutely right, but we can stop for nine minutes and do nothing but think of him.

If you are a psychopath, or a sociopath, nothing in this piece is directed at you, because you are, by definition, unsympathetic. You lack the empathy needed to be a human being. So move along, go ahead, resign. Go back to the hole where you belong, creep.

These words are for the ones hurting, for the ones in need of new windows to see that there are others that come from other worlds who know how you have been mistreated, systematically, by individuals with no ambition other than their own personal wealth. They need to dehumanize you. You know why? Because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to kill you. They need to dehumanize you because otherwise they would have to accept that you too deserve respect and care, so you cease to be a simple means to their end. They need to dehumanize you because they are garbage, walking human carcasses, scared, so scared, they can’t think. And because they are cowards they send the cavalry on you and hide in their bunkers until you die, of coronavirus, a bullet, a taser, a knee, or of your own abulia.

Please, learn from history that the more they have tried to decimate you, the more you have been able to grow and show your beautiful faces, your undying strength, and your promising potential everywhere you go. You have taught me so many lessons and you have shared with me your energy willingly and generously. I have done nothing other than being in your company, and there I was joyful next to you.

Go ahead cry, cover your eyes with both your hands and cry your heart out; there is nothing wrong with that. Cry for all those lost this year, and in the years before, and in the past decades, and in the previous centuries since 1619. I’m crying, too. Because what they have done to you, they have done to us all. Unfortunately, you are the ones who have received the blast first, but your tragedy has had repercussions on everyone at national level, and around the world. We can clearly notice it in the way we all have to walk with this ball and chain that is racism, pulling us all back and down over and over again.

What is the purpose of words if there is no change in anyone’s paradigm? I’m not here to convince you of anything; I won’t insult your intelligence, not in a million years. You and only you know what it means to be in the trenches every day, just because of who you are. What I can tell you, though, it’s very simple—we love you. Believe me, we are with you.

Love is always stronger. No matter what, no matter the bad-intentioned, inept individual who is trying to control the national narrative at all costs.

Love is the drive. I’m not talking about the misuse of the word that goes well with chocolates, flowers, or fancy diamonds. I’m talking about that internal force that makes us walk, hand in hand, toward the same constructive goal. That spark that illuminates our eyes, and it’s so contagious that it can grab us all together and never let us go.

9 minutes of thought. For George Floyd, his family, his friends, his entire community, and all those good-hearted individuals willing to be there to support, help, and share their lives until everything changes. Because out of so much love something has to give.

9 minutes it’s all it took for the murder of a human being like George Floyd, originally from Houston, Texas, where I spent my first 5 crucial years in this country.

Actually, it was 8 minutes and 46 seconds of hell. Still, plenty of time to save someone’s life.