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Change In the Air

We've had protests before
 that have gone nowhere
   But not this time
There's change in the air

The status quo has to go
  People's voices say so
    They won't accept 'No'
There's change in the air

Folks cry out, 'Enough is enough'
  It's past time to get tough
    with police who run rough-
  shod; we're calling their bluff 
There's change in the air

Never again 'I can't breathe'
  Our collective anger does seethe
    Justice to unsheathe ~
There's change in the air




        June 10, 2020
   Brian's Select B Contest
    Sponsor: Brian Strand

Copyright © Gershon Wolf | Year Posted 2020

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Caren Krutsinger Date: 6/11/2020 10:49:00 PM It is so sad that the change had to come around with such a brutal murder; but sometimes that is what takes change. I think that video cameras and I-phones may stop some of the wrongs that are happening now. You are right; change is coming and fast! And rightly so. Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/12/2020 12:53:00 PM Let's see what happens... We've had some pretty awful stuff happen between 9/11 and now, and yet there haven't been any sea changes since 9/11. Time will tell... ~ Gershon

Rhonda Johnson-Saunders Date: 6/11/2020 8:20:00 PM Thanks for sharing your experiences. I have often said I would have liked to have been around in the sixties. Maybe the protests weren't as aggressive, but it was the beginning of equality movements, and on a side note, the music was better. :) Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/11/2020 8:24:00 PM Thanks for your reflections, Rhonda. And you know, the music was, indeed, much better. (Now if you go for 'raw,' unpolished energy, try the rock'n'roll music of the '50's, before any 'rules' were laid down. Some of those numbers, like 'La Bomba,' just explode at you.... Like Hendrix, only more primitive.). Cheers, Gershon

Kim Rodrigues Date: 6/11/2020 5:19:00 AM Yes, this should never ever happen again. When someone is crying out for breath...crying out to their mama (a grown adult, at that) something is very very wrong. The whole chain of links in the system should be in jail with these men! They made him what he was that day without stopping him in his tracks earlier and then they were having him train others! Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/11/2020 3:16:00 PM Unbelievable, isn't it. But the M.O. in too many police departments isn't too different from this... We need to shake our policing systems up big-time... although not to the point of defunding: We don't need anarchy, esp. while we're battling the corona virus. Thanks for your extensive comment, Kim! :) gw

Michelle Faulkner Date: 6/10/2020 11:04:00 PM I hope this time the change is a long lasting one- Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/10/2020 11:14:00 PM I think that the changes coming will be truly dramatic. They will get blowback, and everything won't 'go smoothly.' Bad policing is so ingrained in our culture -- and not just in these sensationalistic incidents -- that it'll take a while to uproot it, methinks. :) gw

P.S. Awtry Date: 6/10/2020 10:29:00 PM yes, it is time for change. in fact it's past time... it's never been so late before! Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/10/2020 11:13:00 PM Later even than the White Rabbit was for his 'very important date!' LOL. Seriously, policing in this country needs a complete overhaul --- although not defunding, methinks... Still deliriously happy to see your avatar again, my friend! Thanks!!!! :) gw

Timothy Mcguire Date: 6/10/2020 10:23:00 PM I agree in hope that all sides will change. Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/10/2020 11:12:00 PM Yes, let us hope that a compromise is reached --- not a cave-in. I fear the latter is about to happen. Or worse, a buzz-saw of a backlash. Thanks, Timothy

Rhonda Johnson-Saunders Date: 6/10/2020 10:00:00 PM Wonderful lines penned, Gershon, and I believe you are right! I've never seen protests like this in my lifetime. I imagine it was like this in the sixties. It takes a movement to create change. I'm hopeful this time. Blessings, Rhonda xx Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/10/2020 11:11:00 PM Here I go giving away my age... I used to sell balloons at the more radical protests in the 60's. Where I went to college, the administration building was seized for three days --- until R.O.T.C. was removed from the campus AND a black studies program was approved --- two of the dumbest things Dartmouth College ever did! ROTC gave struggling lower middle class fellows a chance to go to an Ivy League school and created an intelligent officer class in the Army and Navy. Black Studies was a 'gut' that kept black students on scholarship from taking courses they really needed to get ahead. Anyway, the protests today are more aggressive, I think.. Here's to you, Rhonda. Thanks for all of your comments. :) gw

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart Date: 6/10/2020 8:59:00 PM Great write, well expressed! I do hope change will come. And I don't mean just in the US; Canada has it's own horrific incidents of police brutality and systemic racism. We know better, we should do better, there are better examples out there to follow, and the key word in that is WE. I painted a heart and "one love" on my front door. xomo Login to Reply Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart Date: 6/10/2020 9:24:00 PM On the defunding topic, our own police chief very eloquently spoke of not strictly defunding the police but increasing funding to the community services that a lack of funding creates the problems that the police are left to deal with. Gershon Wolf Date: 6/10/2020 9:16:00 PM Policing nearly everywhere has to change dramatically. DRAMATICALLY. The fact that I, a straight-as-a-stick, law-abiding white man, has never had a pleasant encounter with one single policeman in my life speaks volumes, doesn't it?! Thanks a million, Mo. :) Gershon

Sandra Adams Date: 6/10/2020 8:17:00 PM this is surely the craziest year of my life time... one can only hope it gets better from here.... I am over the riots, the looting, the protestors and the virus... to defund the police is a disaster waiting to happen... the violence in these big cities is already out of control and has been... enjoyed your write though, if it's for the contest, best wishes my friend! hugs Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 6/10/2020 9:14:00 PM We are getting old, eh?! What's the problem with defunding the police? What could possibly go wrong? LOL. ~ Young (and foolish) at heart