“Momma!” George Floyd called out, “Momma! I’m through.” George Floyd's mother died two years ago. But if she were still alive how would her heart not be shattered? When would her pain ever end? What mother doesn't feel a stab of pain reading those words and imagining her own child being so cruelly and heartlessly tortured to death, their murder carried out as a public horror show?
William Shakespeare wrote, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
If George Floyd's mother were still alive I wonder if she would ponder in her sorrow the greatness that was thrust upon her son in that most terrible way. I wonder if she would cull any comfort today, knowing that as his body is laid to its final rest in Houston, Texas,
And I wonder if George Floyd's mother would trade all the good his death will bring about, all the everlasting honor his name will invoke, just to have her son back again.
Today, on the day of George Floyd's burial, as his mother cannot be there to say a few words of love to her son, this mother would like to offer a few words.
Mine are not the words his own mother would say, but words from an old Joan Baez song decrying the death of two Italians at the hands of the American justice system, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti - who may have been victims of bigotry against their nationality - in 1920's. Their death brought about a national cry at that time for social tolerance and justice reforms for the working class.
Rest forever here in our hearts
The last and final moment is yours
That agony is your triumph