Those of a certain age grew up laughing at the antics of people caught on the TV show, “Candid Camera” which was hosted by Allen Funt. Pictures may be worth a thousand words but video and photos also speak in the most profound way in capturing moments that define a generation.
We have such a candid video that has been seen over and over during the past year, weeks, and days that will be a defining moment for the next generation that sits on the brink of changing hearts and minds in combatting institutional racism. It is the video by Darnella Frazier that captured the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin. In my opinion, it was a 17 years old girl who filmed that horrible crime that single handedly created the most important evidence in convicting Derek Chauvin. I know many agree. Her action underscores how one person can really make a culture changing difference in the world. It also underscores the courage that it took for her to take out her phone and record that moment. It also points out that each of us may have such a moment some day in our future when we least expect it.
It has been said that greatness in anything takes 10,000 hours of practice. We practice correcting injustice by paying close attention to what is going on around us and repeating our own moral interventions until they become, as Socrates said, “habits of the heart.”
We see that “readiness to act” in two other pieces of film that capture the moral imagination of my generation.
First, was the Abraham Zapruder film which captured the assassination of President John Kennedy. Zapruder used an 8mm color home motion picture camera. It too was shown over and over until it was part of the national conscious. It ushered in the time of violence of an unpopular war in Vietnam, and the killing of Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Last May Mary Ann Vecchio watched the video of the death of George Floyd. She was reminded that fifty years earlier someone took a picture of her kneeling on the ground with a Kent State student in her arms. As the person that she held was dying she looked up in anguish, pleading, and asking for help with outstretched arms. She was not a Kent State coed as many mistakenly thought. She was a 14 years old runaway who didn’t even know the person she was holding. She realized in disbelief that the National Guard were firing on fellow Americans. 60 shots were fired in 13 seconds. Four people died and nine were wounded. The Vietnam War had come to America. John Filo who was just an ordinary Kent State student knew injustice was occurring in front of his eyes. His picture of Mary Ann Vecchio holding the student who was shot defined a generation and won a Pulitzer Prize.
Darnella Frazier, Abraham Zapruda, Mary Ann Vecchio, and John Filo were ordinary people and ordinary citizens who performed extraordinary ethical actions that focused the nation and the world on the moral purpose of showing the world the importance of justice.
We cannot unsee the video of the death of George Floyd. When I was watching the addresses of people who were thanking others after the verdict of guilty of all charges was announced, I couldn’t help but remember that it was one girl, with courage and the right instincts to notice injustice when she saw it, was really at the heart of the verdict. When we think about it, it has always been the little-known ordinary people, the seemingly unimportant, who usually are behind the most extraordinary acts. That has always been the case.
According to the Guardian, April 21,2021, “Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, was shot and killed by a police officer in Columbus, Franklin County, about 20 minutes before the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd. Michael Woods, Columbus interim police chief, said that a caller said females were trying to stab them and put their hands on them.
Police played a 10 second body cam-video at a news conference on Tuesday which appeared to show the girl wielding a knife as she grappled with another person. A police officer opens fire, and a girl drops to the ground. The Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health released a study that determined the rate of Black people killed by police was 339% higher than white fatalities.”
It is past time for us all to do justice and for it to become second nature. The Prophet Micah said it best: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) Nothing ambiguous about that call to identify habits of the heart. We probably will never take an iconic video or photo, but we do have eyes to see and ears to hear. The picture of moral action is taken with eyes and action that will be developed in the darkroom of our heart and soul. All of us need to be ready! Inflection points are moments that change culture for good or bad. We need to be part of those moments that call for good change that will lead to justice for all.
https://www.cincinnati.com/in-depth/news/history/2020/05/01/kent-state-shooting-photos-mary-ann-vecchio-impacts-nation-jeffrey-miller-john-filo/3055009001/
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