"I can't...

...breathe." ~ A common plea of people of color as they are killed by police which has become a social justice, anti-police violence rallying cry.

I have been away, obviously, we are all preoccupied with COVID and how that radically transformed our lives, and our inept government. But now we have an administration that can actually govern, and even is interested in governing, something we have lacked for 4 years nationally, and, promising vaccines also rays of hope. 

"I can't breathe," has been taken up as a battle cry in the fight against racist police murders (call it what you want, but that is what they are) because people literally had their breath taken away, like George Floyd who we all saw murdered, slowly, his breath was taken away forever.

Then came COVID, which also took away one's ability to breathe, and compounded the racism because it extends to eveything, especially healthcare, so it was yet another way for the breath of people of color, especially African Americans, to be taken away in higher numbers than for whites. 

And where I am in the Pacific NW, the smoke from fires choked us, took away our breath, trapped us in homes even more than we were. We went outside and couldn't breathe.

"I can't breathe," will be immortal as a cry for social justice and an end to systemic racist policing and violence, and it will always sum up 2020, and I feel like the breath I have held for 4 years is slowly being exhaled. 

A lot to be thankful for, this Thanksgiving. Thank you, speaking of, for stopping by. Much more to come in this and my Music History blog. 

Be well and have a safe, happy, healthy holiday. Stay home. Don't create Christmas funerals. Please. 🙏❤

~ Wayne Ray Flower II