Pyrrhic Victory...

 

Image source: Christian Small Attorneys

© November 25, 2021, the Griot Poet

 

I breathed a sigh of relief with the verdict:

All were found guilty of felony murder and aggravated assault.

All will spend the rest of their lives in prison.

I should feel celebratory, but I don’t.

Their feckless defense will appeal the decision.

I would [rather] never have heard his name,

Rendered to a hashtag,

I would rather he be nameless, eating Thanksgiving dinner with his family and friends.

Yet another in a long line of ghoulish behavior,

Yet another innocent African American slaughtered,

Yet another sacrifice on a hellish altar,

In a nation that prides itself on being “exceptional.”

 

African Americans

Have to give their children “The Talk.”

How to survive a racist cop,

How to try to look non-threatening on an escalator, in an elevator, in any room, while shopping, barbecuing in the park, bird watching in the park, selling loose cigarettes on New York streets, selling lemonade or water with a permit, while walking, carrying Skittles, sleeping in your bed, sitting in your apartment, and while jogging!

The list is expansive and never-ending,

Fear from a cisgender culture finding itself no longer central,

Numbers plunged for the first time since 1790 by an early end to the Census,

Walking outside of our homes,

[Has] always placed us in a war zone,

Since 1619,

We never get over the last shell shock,

We’re perpetually suffering PTSD,

In this land of “opportunity.”

 

The defense demonized Ahmaud Arbrey,

The murderers’ Billy Bob, Cooter, and Skeeter

Found their crack legal team on a box appropriately named “Cracker Jack,”

At the bottom of the trash bin at Cracker Barrel,

From the esteemed law offices of

Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, and Nazi Barbie,

 

If black lives didn’t matter to them,

Neither did black preachers,

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson

Called out by name,

Saying there were too many of them,

Saying there were too many blacks on the jury,

Think of this:

11:1 advantage whites to one African American,

Was TOO many,

Racist tropes about Kentucky Fried Chicken,

Comments about Ahmaud jogging without socks, dirty toes,

This argument wasn’t a defense: it was the sordid rites at a Klan meeting!

 

Since Kenosha,

I was bracing for another defeat.

The fact Rittenhouse crossed state lines,

Driven by his mom,

Owned no property in Illinois or Wisconsin,

He was given a gun someone straw man purchased for him,

Handed it to a seventeen-year-old kid,

Store-bought plastic gloves,

Pretending to be a trained EMT medic,

The police gave him water and a pat on the back,

The first man he killed was a licensed concealed carry gun owner triggered by his unchallenged presence,

The second man he killed attacked him with a skateboard,

The third man survived.

Ironically, Kyle managed to blow off the bicep of an actual EMT medic.

Despite these facts,

The North Carolina wheelchair fascist,

Representative Madison Cawthorn,

Cheered the bloodlust and carnage,

He wants his constituents “armed and dangerous,”

For a future fake election loss, they can’t steal

Without the United Nations coming to the grim realization

Actively considering the so-called United States is sliding into a rogue nation,

Where democracy and the rule of law are quaint, antiquated notions,

The former fascist in chief took a perverse “thumbs up” picture with him,

Matt Gaetz and other like-minded psychopaths want to hire him as an intern,

He’s likely going to be a troll guest at the next State of the Union,

A speaker at the next Republican National Convention,

Who knew a murderer had a future in politics?

A party that has openly abandoned democracy HAS no bottom!

 

Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers are guilty.

But where does the mentality come from where you THINK you can shoot a black man, FILM it, and get away with it?

 

An answer in the comments section on Facebook from a friend of poets and authors, editor Mindy Reed,

 

“It comes from a system that has tolerated such behavior for centuries.”

 

What other country on the PLANET has a sorority and fraternity of parents who have lost sons and daughters to racial violence?

 

It’s not a stretch, nor do I have it twisted,

“American exceptionalism” is exceptionally sadistic.

 

Rest In Peace and Power, Ahmaud Arbery; you deserve it,

But other than the verdict: we’d rather have HIM with us!