In Memory of George Floyd

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

Hello GGBA members and Community,Our world is on fire. Literally. Earlier this year, it was the wildfires in California and Australia as a result of climate change. Now, it is the reaction to the senseless death of George Floyd, a black American man, at the hands of the very people sworn to protect him and us, the police.As tragic and infuriating as the killing of Mr. Floyd is, the reaction the entire country is experiencing is much bigger than the murder of one individual; it is the eruption of outrage from years, indeed centuries, of one segment of American society being viewed and treated as ‘less than’ by another. Much less. #blacklivesmatter

“Since January 01, 2015, 1,252 black people have been shot and killed by police according to The Washington Post’s database tracking police shootings; that doesn’t even include those who died in police custody or were killed using other methods”                    -   NPR, ‘A decade of watching black people die’ #SayTheirName

 While the rioting and destruction is saddening to watch, we all can certainly understand the emotion at the root of that destruction. When calls for justice and peaceful protests are ignored, or labeled as ill-timed, or greeted with physical violence, then despair will set in and the need to do something that cannot be ignored is inevitable. This same emotion is what drove LGBT people to rise up in 1969, at The Stonewall Inn, and to say ‘no more’.For black Americans, the time for equal justice under the law, of ‘no more’, is long overdue. It is up to each of us – you and me - as Americans, as human beings, to no longer stand on the sidelines of systematic prejudice and dehumanization of any person. We must do what we know in our hearts to be right and what we know in our minds to be possible. As Dr. King said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”The GGBA stands in solidarity with other chambers and organizations in a push for individual accountability for the killing of George Floyd, and for reforms which protect and serve all of us equally.Broken glass and stolen merchandise can be easily replaced, but the black men and women who have been senselessly killed will never return nor will their families ever be whole again.Our hearts, prayers, and thoughts are with the family of Mr. Floyd and those who knew and loved him.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, oR his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”                                                          - Nelson Mandela

Gina Grahame,President