Tuesday
Much praise has been heaped upon the extraordinary speech delivered extemporaneously by Julia Jackson, the mother of the young man who was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha, Wisconsin cop. Her thoughts brought to mind an Audre Lorde poem about bees.
Jackson’s words are worth quoting in full:
My son, as we’re fighting for his life. And we really just need prayers. As I was riding through here, through the city, I noticed a lot of damage. It doesn’t reflect my son or my family. If Jacob knew what was going on as far as that goes, the violence and the destruction, he would be very unpleased. So, I really asking and encouraging everyone in Wisconsin and abroad to take a moment and examine your hearts. Citizens, police officers, fireman, clergy, politicians, do Jacob justice on this level and examine your hearts.
We need healing. As I pray for my son’s healing physically, emotionally, and spiritually, I also have been praying even before this for the healing of our country.
God has placed each and every one of us in this country because he wanted us to be here. Clearly, you can see by now that I have beautiful brown skin, but take a look at your hand and whatever shade it is, it is beautiful as well.
How dare we hate what we are? We are humans. God did not make one type of tree or flower or fish or horse or grass or rock. How dare you ask him to make one type of human that looks just like you?
I’m not talking to just Caucasian people, I am talking to everyone. White, black, Japanese, Chinese, red, brown, no one is superior to the other-
No one is superior to the other. The only supreme being is God himself. Please let’s begin to pray for healing for our nation. We are the United States. Have we been united? Do you understand what’s going to happen when we fall? Because a house that is against each other can not stand.
To all of the police officers, I’m praying for you and your families. To all of the citizens, my black and brown sisters and brothers, I’m praying for you. I believe that you are an intelligent being just like the rest of us. Everybody, let’s use our hearts, our love, and our intelligence to work together, to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other. America is great when we behave greatly. Thank you.
In “The Bees,” an incident triggered by a random act of violence—in this instance, think of it as the shooting of Jacob Blake—escalates into wholesale destruction. Kenosha saw buildings burned and three people shot by white supremacist, two fatally. As Lorde makes clear, so much is wasted when we start destroying:
In the street outside a school what the children learn possesses them. Little boys yell as they stone a flock of bees trying to swarm between the lunchroom window and an iron grate. The boys sling furious rocks smashing the windows. The bees, buzzing their anger, are slow to attack. Then one boy is stung into quicker destruction and the school guards come long wooden sticks held out before them they advance upon the hive beating the almost finished rooms of wax apart mashing the new tunnels in while fresh honey drips down their broomsticks and the little boy feet becoming expert in destruction trample the remaining and bewildered bees into the earth. Curious and apart four little girls look on in fascination learning a secret lesson and trying to understand their own destruction. One girl cries out “Hey, the bees weren’t making any trouble!” and she steps across the feebly buzzing ruins to peer up at the empty, grated nook “We could have studied honey-making!”
There’s so much more we can learn, so many more ways we can grow, if we open ourselves to the secret lives of bees and humans. Instead of studying honey-making, many choose instead the adrenaline highs of fear and violence.