History is being made, and we must bear witness

History is in the making.

Someday, these events will be written down in history books and taught to our children, grandchildren, great-children and so on. Years from now, these dates will appear under the Almanac on The Dominion Post’s weather page.

First, a global pandemic. An unexpected sickness that ravaged the world. Case studies will track these early months — spread, response, deaths — and show what went wrong and what went right. There will be entire books dedicated to all the things we don’t know now. Biographies of the lost and memoirs of the survivors will stock bookstore shelves.

Now, the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death. Peaceful or violent, demonstrations erupted across the nation after a white officer kneeled on a black man’s neck for eight minutes, three of which Floyd was unresponsive. Floyd’s cries of “I can’t breathe” were the straw that broke the camel’s back after a series of incidents where unarmed black individuals were killed.

There will be more to say about this later, as we sort through personal accounts and official statements and more information comes to light.

In the meantime, we are in that uncomfortable place of both living through and bearing witness to history.

We all lived — and continue to live — under the stress of the coronavirus pandemic. We are mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. Even as strict guidelines ease and we take tentative steps toward a new normal, the uncertainty of the future looms dark and menacing on the horizon. So even as we begin to rebuild our lives, we keep one wary eye on the potential consequences.

Some have an added burden — they are living under the constant stress of a national system that discriminates against them and has for centuries. Their exhaustion is generational, passed from parent to child again and again in tales of what to do and what not to do in order to come safely home every day.

Whether or not this is our fight, whether or not we stand for or against, we have the responsibility to bear witness as history is made. We may be at the beginning of another civil rights movement, one that seeks to have unfulfilled promises kept. Here in the moment, it’s hard to tell if the protests and riots of the past week are a pebble thrown into the river of time or a boulder that changes the course of history.

Even though we are tired, both in our bones and in our souls, we must bear honest witness. Even if we don’t actively participate, we must watch, as painful as that can be. Because someday, our children or grandchildren will sit on our laps and ask us what happened. And it will be our responsibility to tell them.

Whether we marched or protested, whether we spoke out or remained quiet, whether we agreed or disagreed, we will be the ones to remember the things the records don’t say. We are America’s memory, and that is why we must bear witness.