For the past few days, the First Parish Congregational Church, UCC -- 218 Central Avenue in Dover, New Hampshire -- has been exhibiting a series of BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED QUILTS memorializing the shocking, profoundly unjust death of 46-year-old Minneapolis Black man and father George Floyd. The quilts have preserved for us the last desperate words Floyd was able to utter while begging, without success, for mercy -- a chance just to stay alive and be a father to the daughter he so loved and cared for.
Floyd's murder, at the hands of Indianapolis on-duty policeman Derek Chauvin -- since found guilty and sentenced to more than 20 years in Federal Prison -- shook the nation to its foundations and has intensified the unceasing call for an end to discrimination against African Americans -- especially African American males -- everywhere in this country and beyond.
Seacoast area people! You have JUST ONE CHANCE LEFT -- Saturday, May 13, 10 a.m. to Noon -- to see these beautiful quilts and pay your respects to a man struck down for no reason other than the color of his skin combined with the astonishing, remorseless cruelty of a uniformed public servant -- a Minneapolis policeman with 20+ years of experience -- who forsook his oath of office and brought shame to his profession and caring people everywhere.
Black Lives Matter! Come see these quilts and join the thousands of people around this country calling for justice for ALL Americans, not just a chosen few people who are inclined more to outright bigotry than plain human compassion and decency.
-- Ross Alan Bachelder, www.artsaplenty.me