Thanks to a Jury for Keeping Hope Alive

by Ernie McCray

Dear Jury: Waiting for your verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial was agonizing. No pun intended, because of what the trial was all about, but I could hardly breathe.

But when it was announced, regarding all charges, that you had found him guilty as guilty can be, air rushed from me like a river pouring into the sea.

I’ve never felt more relieved. But what does it really mean?

I mean in the standings of wins and losses in the “justice system” between communities of color and the police, the “peace officers” are ahead a zillion to one.

But you made this victory an historically significant one, simply by doing what had to be done: holding Mr. Chauvin accountable for his lack of humanity, having him hauled off handcuffed to the lockup – where people who did what he did are supposed to be. Finally.

You can’t nonchalantly balance your weight on your knee that’s resting on a captured man who’s crying “I can’t breathe” for all the world to see.

Oh, you must have known, if you had gone with “not guilty,” the streets in our towns and cities would be set on fire, and that would have unleashed a torrential storm of police brutality on a scale never seen.

But you came through, doing what was obviously the right thing to do, essentially setting us on a path to changing the way people of color are treated by the police.

You’ve written the first chapter of a story that’s just beginning, giving a country and a world a glimpse at how justice looks when its applied to all human beings equally.

So, thank you, thank you, thank you.

For keeping hope alive.