Oscar Grant mural in downtown Oakland
on July 13, 2010
3 Comments
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So sorry that it took your life to reveal your struggling beauty. RIP young man.
Seriously?!? He’s not a hero.
… how do you know (and I wonder why that is your reaction)? How do any of us know who walks by us on the street -and is a kind of hero? For supporting a struggling elder who was kind to them as a child, for raising a child/teaching with a heart of love not hate, to give to charities even if $5 a month to promote positivity…
We’ll never know who Oscar Grant could have been- and we don’t know one another as we weave in crowds down the streets, anonymous. The only ones that are easy to define are the non-heroes, be they the spreaders of hate based on any stereotype, be they spreaders of negativity for the sake of sick pleasure- or the many, many worse things we can all think of offhand.
Seems as if our society devalues kindness in a twisted high school mentality: giving, loving, being positive- all of that makes you some kind of sucker these days.
Seems pretty easy to be a hero these days, and why not try…? Hero isn’t a huge thing: it’s many small things on a sort of consistent basis, without unrealistic attempts at perfection or any pedestal; just not feeding the hate is a start.
I suppose there is a fact that one can read that ‘simply being shot in the back while you lay helpless’ does not make you a hero. But that mural of this loss is tragic & beautiful- and the loss of a young father is a terrible thing. In the end, one thing that will stay true is that Oscar Grant will remain a symbol of the tragic history of our country and our ongoing strife, confusion, loss, hate and pain. Not his goal in life, one can be certain.
Reminders like this mural may be what we need as we go forward… I hope it feeds change and love, not ugliness of any sort. But hope is a hard thing to carry in your heart.
It hurts like hell.