I salute everyone who stood for love and tolerance, and bless Rep. Jenny Horne for her righteous anger, but I can’t forget the nine people who lost their lives to teach us a very valuable lesson in this day, and the millions more who suffered kidnapping, murder, rape, and enslavement over many decades, to make us confront our selfishness and brutality, our tendency to look away when it’s not our flesh in the vise. Because some in my family were able to pass, they put the years of slavery behind us and watched as others paid the price. Some helped when they could, some turned aside. I don’t blame them–who knows what we would have done to avoid the pain, the savagery–but I think they would agree that today we should remember the fallen and not those in flight. The spirit flies even when the body lays vanquished.

“I did it because I am free.” – Bree Newsome