Our Lives Depend on The Vote

Yesterday, we were painfully reminded “Black Lives Don’t Matter.”

This sober and unsettling thought brought tears to my eyes as I listened to Kentucky’s State Attorney General explain no charges will be brought against the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor, a completely innocent woman who lay asleep in her bed when they burst into her apartment, shot her, and killed her.  The grand jury brought charges of “wanton endangerment” against just one of the three officers involved.  The two who murdered Breonna were held harmless, but the one who shot recklessly from outside the apartment and whose bullets went into adjacent apartments was charged.  Yet he was only charged for the bullets that penetrated the walls of white neighbors, not the bullets shot into Breonna’s apartment or those that tore the through walls of a black neighbors’ apartment.

What does this say?  It lets us know that some people believe white people’s walls are more important than black people’s bodies.

Sadly, this heartbreaking news was delivered by a black Attorney General and rising Republican star being mentored by Mitch McConnell. Protests broke out immediately in Louisville and across the country; I support the protestors and pray the marches remain peaceful so no more lives are lost. And, we must also harness our anger and use the power of the ballot to ensure we elect prosecutors and others who truly stand “for the people.”

If Democrats are able to take the Presidency and U.S. Senate, and elect State Legislators and Attorneys General coast-to-coast, maybe we can begin to address the systemic racism that is the real underlying issue and, at long last, make “Black Lives Matter.”

We must VOTE like our lives depend on it, because they do!