State of the world

CTA bus hit with graffiti

On Saturday, it was hard to get home. I was about to take a bus downtown from my job to get the red line and the bus just stopped with our driver getting off the bus to take a call. He never said anything to us until another bus passed us up and other riders tried to catch that one. Our driver finally noted that a demonstration was taking place in the Loop and that bus service was disrupted.

I just walked and I was loathe to back towards downtown hoping to catch a train home. Found out there was no train service into the Loop. I had to walk into the outskirts of downtown and call for a ride home. It was an interesting adventure to get away from the action and my feet hurt when I sat down.

At an L station I got tired of waiting as riders got frustrated waiting another rider was frustrated with someone who was with her. I got tired of that and decided to see if there were any alternatives a customer assistant at the station said there was rioting downtown. Even noted that people were being pushed onto the tracks disrupting L service.

There was a lot of noise from protestors mouths and drivers heavy on their car horns. I saw a lot of boarded up businesses and unfortunately graffiti also on the streets, on buildings and on CTA buses.

As I walked toward downtown I witnessed a couple of young women who were walking away from the demonstrations try to throw water on a line of police cars heading towards the commotion. It lets me know how fired up seemingly the world is right now.

Without a doubt I think that police officer in Minneapolis is guilty of what he did to George Floyd when they arrested him. That former police officer lost his job and he's in jail as I type this post. It seems it has caused a serious debate of police interactions with citizens more broadly. And definitely police interactions with Black citizens more specifically. It's a necessary discussion.

Unfortunately with what happened this weekend in Chicago I connect this with the stay at home order and the ongoing pandemic. People were already restless, especially once the weather warmed up and all it took was that incident in Minneapolis. I opined looking at the graffitti downtown that perhaps we've been locked down for too long.

What I've been seeing unfolding over this weekend let's me know it's gone beyond the death of George Floyd. It's less about justice and now we've arrived at the destruction phase. It's not enough that downtown became a warzone, the neighborhoods have been looted. Parts of Chicago that could ill afford this activity to their business areas are experiencing it and unfortunately there's a possibility these businesses might get shut down in the future.

It absolutely disgusts me what's been happening around the city and the nation this past weekend.

When Barack Obama got elected president I pledged as an older student at Morehouse College that I wanted to be more involved. Then life took over, it was time to go to work. With this chaos in the world right now it's time to go to work making the world a much better place.

I just don't know where to get started, but now is the time to do so. Hopefully some of you are out there looking to do the same.