The AM

I raise my arms as prayer: “GLORY!”

Why? My sight sees again. This time it isn’t President Obama taking the presidential office; this time, it ain’t (And I mean to say ain’t) me being handcuffed by a police officer on a highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This Sunday morning I am praying and seeing young people: “GLORY!”

My sight sees American children sprawled across a Huntsville, Alabama highway; they hold their arms and hands up, hugging their witness to those signs: “I Am A Man.” Hear me, “ BLACK LIVES MATTER.” I am reminded of my historical fore-parents on that death boat. Hear me: their contemporary children lay across a highway; they want to “shut down” the notion that their lives don’t matter. I hear them: AMERICA, “Till, Martin, Brown, and Garner mattered: “GLORY!”

I swallow my own sadness. If I were a CUSSIN’ woman, right about now I would find a piece of profanity to throw into the universe. However, the universe does not deserve my profane thoughts or the behavior some police officials have thrown on its citizens. The profane, i.e., the vigilante behavior of law enforcement officers like Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo is profane enough. Gosh, I feel remorse for Wilson and Pantaleo: Neither knows, it seems, what humanity looks like. What’s worse, they don’t seem to know what it feels like. I tell myself, Jesus knows BLACK LIVES MATTER. So, I talk to Jesus. “GLORY!”

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

Jesus, JESUS!

Did you hear the last breath of Michael Brown? Did you know Darren Wilson saw Michael Brown as a “demon,” an “evil spirit?’ Michael Brown did not have a chance. JESUS, Darren Wilson didn’t even see Michael Brown as a young man with a life that “MATTERED!” JESUS, I watched the footage of Eric Garner. I watched Mr. Garner beg the police officers who, on that day, transformed themselves into vigilantes, for his life, his freedom, for them to recognize his humanity.

Jesus, did you see how those police officers pulled Mr. Garner to the ground? Did you see how they smashed his head, his brain, and his memory into that New York City cement? Did you see what Americans could not see (possibly) in that van on the way to the hospital? BLACK! LIVES! MATTER!

They tell me Darren Wilson was allegedly paid six figures for his interview on ABC. Six figures while Michael Brown was paid death. “GLORY!”

Jesus, I raise my arms up to holler “Black Lives Matter.”  I find myself praying for Mr. Eric Garner’s family; I pray for Michael Brown’s family; I pray for Trayvon Martin’s family. And I struggle to pray for an out-pouring and receiving of God’s love on American people—especially those who walk with a subliminal consciousness to kill black boys. Tell them Jesus, BLACK LIVES MATTER. “GLORY! GLORY!”

I wonder–which one of the presidential candidates is thinking this morning about Black  (American) Lives and how much they matter. That candidate needs my vote!