Say their names. Say them out loud.
David McAtee. 6/1/2020
They were all human beings. They all had stories.
George Floyd. 5/25/2020
They all had dreams. They should all still be alive.
Michael Ramos. 4/24/2020
Some were heroes, working on the front lines of a Pandemic.
Breonna Taylor. 3/12/2020
Their lives were all cut short
Ahmaud Aubrey. 2/23/2020
because we exist in a society that places a higher value on some lives than others.
Atatiana Jefferson. 10/12/2019
Some of them were in their own homes
Botham Jean. 9/6/2018
minding their own business,
Andrew Finch. 12/28/2017
when their lives were taken. Say their names.
Bijan Ghaisar. 11/17/2017
Some of them had criminal records.
Armando Frank. 10/20/2017
Some of them could not hear what the police were saying.
Madgiel Sanchez 9/19/2017
That doesn’t mean they deserved to die.
Charles Kinsey. 7/18/2016
Some were in their cars.
Philando Castile. 7/6/2016
Some were in police custody or already in prison.
Sandra Bland. 7/13/2015
That doesn’t mean they did not deserve to live.
Freddie Gray. 4/19/2015
Some were playing in the park.
Tamir Rice. 11/22/2014
Say their names.
Laquan McDonald. 10/20/2014
Some were men of large stature.
Michael Brown. 8/9/2014
Is being big a capital crime?
Eric Garner. 7/17/2014
Some were children or teens. We will never know what they could have accomplished.
Trayvon Martin. 2/26/2012
Some had a history of mental illness.
Elliott Williams. 10/27/2011
That should not be punishable by death.
Say their names.
Many of their killers were acquitted or never charged.
Say their names.
In some cases their killers were charged and convicted.
It didn’t bring them back.
It didn’t stop the killing.
Say their names.
We have to remember and we have to do better. These names are only a drop in the bucket. For every name that we know how many more are there for whom there were no cameras, so they were quietly forgotten?
We have to keep saying their names so they are never forgotten. We have to keep saying their names so that we never think of them as statistics.
Even more, we have to keep saying their names until we can stop adding names. The only way that we can honor these people is by changing the culture that killed them. Say their names.
