Each week there seems to be a new headline of a black person shot.
A murder that’s called a mistake, a boy that’s called a man.
The media always seems to find beauty in the body on the floor,
but death was never pretty until we made it out to be.
A martyr for our country.
When do they stop being martyrs and start being ordinary people. Dead.
And maybe you can make something musical out of the pain and suffering,

but all I hear are the cries of family members learning that they will never see their loved one again.

All I hear are the shouts of people on the streets yelling and fighting for the ones gone too soon.

And I don’t know what it’s like to go outside your house and fear for your life.
But that is no excuse for me to not care.
You can not ignore the blood on your white shoes, as white as our skin,
which is an armor that protects us more than Kevlar can.
You can not ignore the biggest elephant in the room.
You can not ignore the fact that black Americans are three times more likely to be shot

and killed by the police than white Americans.

And compared to 22 other high-income nations, the U.S. gun-related homicide rate is 25 times higher.

And do you know what it is like to not feel safe in a classroom?

To have security guards at every door leading into the building.
They’ve started teaching kindergartens nursery rhymes about what to do when there is a shooter.
And half my life I’ve grown up with the threat of being killed by a gun in a class.
Active shooter drills added to the list of procedures we practice each year.
Now each classroom door locks automatically when you close it.
Now the threat of a gunman in a classroom is as normal as a fire.

And yet the debate on gun control rages on.
As more people are killed, in their homes, in their classrooms, in their streets.
And power rules this world with an iron fist, as the mortality rate goes up.
So you let the guns stay in favor of the money that they bring.
And is it so hard to understand that when people are dying you take away the thing that is killing them.
And is it so hard to understand that guns will keep on being weapons in the hands of unstable people.
That one gun leads to another, leads to another, leads to another.
That death leads to death again and again.

And the only way to stop this cycle is for guns to no longer be a common accessory.
For us to stop fighting fire with fire.
Stricter laws will lead to fewer deaths, lead to less fear, lead to fewer guns.
The cycle can be stopped if only you would step in.
But the debate on gun control continues as the bodies pile up.
How long can this go on
Before you can no longer ignore the blood on your shoes and the blood on your hands?