Mass Graves May Reveal Secrets To What Happened 99 Years Ago
As experts disturb the earth to find what has long been hidden, will it end a mystery or start one? No one can be sure at this point. However, the effort pushed by Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum is noble and important. It is also healing at its core. There is a chance the questions may never be answered, and it will be left to our collective doubts as to what happened. It will never be an empty effort. Bynum is trying to right a nearly 100-year-old wrong.
Experts and workers are combing through tons of long buried earth to search for clues no matter how small. The weather is not ideal with the world waiting on the results. This should have been done years ago. There are people who know what happened and they are quiet. That is a terrible prospect after so many years. The truth handed down like some bloody heirloom never to be shared with the descendants or public. If that is true, they should step forward or let Tulsans know the truth.
Tulsa is reckoning along with the rest of the nation on the past where people of color were murdered, mistreated, and disrespected. We can be angry about the past or work to heal together like brothers and sisters.
Is Lynching Coming Back To Torment And Terrorize?
Imagine a hatred so deep that it manifests itself by putting a rope around the neck of the object of your loathing and hanging them from a tree until they were dead. That is part of the evil that must go into the lynching of a person. Today Black men are being found hanging from trees and often law enforcement has determined the hanging was the result of suicide. That sounds improbable and has led some to believe the truth is being ignored.
Billie Holiday recorded Strange Fruit in 1937 about the lynchings of that era. At the height of Jim Crow laws meant to thwart any attempt for Black families to rise from under the boot of oppression, the results were deadly and certainly acts of terror. At the very least the investigations should be thorough. Because of the history of lynching it would be horrible to think the barbaric practice is making a comeback. This begs the question: are lynchings a result of the Black Lives movement after the George Floyd murder at the hands of police?
In June, Art Acevedo was found hanging near a ballfield in Houston. Police said the death was the result of suicide. While suicide by hanging happens in prisons and jails, on the outside it is rare. Given the history of lynching, it doesn’t seem probable that a man of color would hang himself. In New York Dominique Alexander was found hanging and again it was ruled a suicide. Often the families have said it was unlikely their loved one would take their own lives.
Also, in June, in Palmdale California, Robert Fuller was found hanging from a tree and the police ruled it a suicide. About 50 miles away at a homeless camp Malcolm Harsch was found hung to death. In this case it is an open investigation. A probe that includes State investigators. Lynchings are rare, and the chances of two happening so close to each other is astronomical. It’s fortunate local law enforcement is taking this death seriously and continue to look for answers.
In New Jersey, Amanuel Tamirat Kildea was found hung and while his family are at this point believing the police saying it was a suicide the community is not so sure. They have been working to force the police to look for the truth. He was a young gifted athlete from Ethiopia.
In Indiana, Vauhxx Booker says a group of white people taunted him with racial slurs, beat him and threatened to lynch him as several people kept calling for a rope. He escaped injured when his friends retrieved him from his captors. There is no telling what would have happened to Vauhxx had his friends had not freed him. The incident was captured on video and the FBI and local authorities are looking for answers. No one has been arrested and that appears odd since signs of a clear set of crimes is evident.
Last month a noose was found in the garage set a side for NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace. It was found that the noose had been there months before Wallace occupied the garage. Media and law enforcement were quick to dismiss the incident as accidental and not racial. However, pictures of the noose are disturbing all by itself. It was suggested the noose was to help pull open the garage door, however why fashion it in the shape of a hangman’s noose? This investigation took only a week and it certainly needed to be longer.
Lynching is perhaps the ultimate hate crime and should be investigated with great haste. The fact the suspected lynchings have occurred as America marches in the streets is a clear sign that there may be an attempt to stir up a new terror during the era of Black Lives Matter. If that is the case it should be dealt with swiftly and decisively.
Mandatory Face Masks Are Becoming More Common
For reasons passing understanding there is a great reluctance to saving your own life and those of your fellow citizens over wearing a face mask. It is proven to provide a modicum of safety for the user and others. The President of the United States Donald J. Trump has decided the economy needs to be rushed back into high gear. The strong economy was his greatest asset and any attempt to stop Trump from restarting the economy was met with unreasonable rage. A rage shared by his followers.
The result has ended up in deadly incidents as people have let their misplaced opposition to public safety turn into some kind of battle cry for Trump. Tulsa recently passed their mask ordinance and other cities have followed suit.
We have foolishly reopened too fast and people have died because of the psychotic rush to recharge an economy in the middle of a pandemic. Stable thinkers have had to take over. Hopefully, we all can do what we must to reign in Covid-19 before it inflects more damage.
