The abuse we are witnessing by police across our country is nothing new nor is it only an act of prejudice pertaining to blacks and whites…
A few years ago my son was brutally beaten in Plattsburgh NY and during that time I had at least 20 other young people come forward telling stories of the abuse they were subjected to as well. It was a horrible experience and every avenue that I turned to for help with this matter said you can’t win- let it go and be warned to stay out of the system.
I felt so defeated and useless knowing that this would continue.
After this happened were not just in a mode of healing the beaten and tattered body of my son but also healing the deep reflection of who we were, and who we wanted to be from that moment forward as a result of what we had experienced and witnessed.
During this time my son and I had a chance to take a really good look at what was going on within our criminal justice system and our society as a whole. I don’t claim police in general to be abusive in fact I know many kind hearted and very professional law officers. The problem, in my opinion, is that people are led astray from being people. There is a means of separatism that is happening. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, black or white, educated or not, I feel there are those in charge of our country (world) who would like nothing more than to continue to see division or polarization of the people. From one perspective I see law officers as equals.
They are being enslaved just like the rest of us but like many of the rest of us they don’t even notice.
When we were dealing with the rawness of our personal situation we saw the abusers and the type of life they had come from. We saw how each person involved in this system was part of it all. We saw the mentality, or shall I say attitude, that they chose to attach to in order to define themselves. We then saw that this attachment appeared to be the means of being someone in a life where they had been programmed to believe that they had to prove themselves in society. So in essence one could say that they steal power from others in order to be someone, or to gain (false) power. I know in my heart that is not living an authentic life. But this is just my opinion and my own personal truth at this moment of now. Perhaps it is their current truth to do these acts as a means to show people like me how I really want to live and how I really want my world to be, thus forcing me to strive for it everyday.
We realized then that it was now even more important than ever for us to keep defining our selves as our own true nature. We are kind compassionate people who stand for truth and justice and peace. We are fortunate to have been surrounded by all of these qualities during our upbringing early in life. We too have been exposed to conflict and challenge like everyone else, and still choose to stand strong in our truth. As a result of our experiences, we know first hand how important it is to be real and to uphold these personal truths of ours above and beyond those of any man made laws or systems.
I’m not suggesting that all persons working in the systems are corrupt. I am suggesting that we are all equal in that we have a choice as to how we want to live our lives. We should be coming together in recognition of each others core needs. The recognition of being humans, of being equal, of wanting to shut down old patterns and paradigms that no longer work for us. We should be working together as we are all a part of this big picture and can accomplish so much if we can just look at each other and STOP for one moment and feel compassion.
One of the hardest things we will ever do as human beings is to find that action that must be taken and still stand in our personal truths of love and compassion.
It wasn’t easy and it hasn’t been easy and still isn’t easy for me to stay at peace with myself, or within myself, but I try everyday as does my son (I am very proud of him and his truth).