Who is at fault? Who has the power?

I was just at a rally to commemorate victims of gun violence. One of the speakers, a government official, a man of color, spoke of how proud he was that he made it to his sixties. My thought was, how shameful a world we live in where surviving to one’s senior years should be considered an accomplishment. That is, sadly, the way it is for people of color. This man’s attitude, however, seemed a bit dismissive; “if I can do it, you can do it” sort of approach to the problem of gun violence. He went on to talk about the good ol days when these neighborhood organizer moms would run things with an iron fist and keep everyone in line. He opined about how mothers today need to teach their sons better and those sons also better pull their pants up off their rears. This, this, was from someone is a governmental position who has the power to effect change. Blaming mothers for the problem and simultaneously charging them with fixing it is not fair nor correct. Blaming young peoples’ fashion choices for societies ills is cliché, inaccurate, and really played.

The changes that need to be made should not be shouldered by the grieving mothers. Young men pulling up their pants is not going to cause a societal and generational realization or revolution.

I am reminded of the people in power who actually thanked George Flloyd for becoming some sort of unwitting martyr. Real change does not rest on the shoulders of one person. All of these comments and viewpoints are, in my view, dismissive and fatuous.

The racist, classist, inequitable systems that have been in place for generations are not the fault of moms not teaching their children well and they are not solved by one man’s murderer being given the punishment he deserves.

As I work with a new group of families, friends, and artists and learn about way too many more people who have lost their lives in senseless, truly senseless, shootings, I am so grateful for the passion of these participants to create the art project that is Souls Shot Portrait Project. The passion comes through in the portraits and reaches the viewers in their very being. We need to reach the policy makers, the power wielders and keep up the momentum to create real change.

Laura Madeleine