I have been quiet on this blog for sometime, but I have been writing a poem a day for a 30/30 group. Each day in April a prompt is presented for poetry month. Many of the poems I came up with dealt with social justice issues. I’ll blog it out at the end of the month, but today, I had to rejoice and share feelings of bittersweet relief. I say bittersweet because it’s a relief that emerges from the death of a man.

Today is a historic day as we all braced for a verdict on the Chauvin trial. The world was watching, many expecting the worst. After coming to the conclusion that the judicial system did not care about justice, it was quite a shock to many of us that the jury found Chauvin guilty on all counts!

From the beginning of the trial, I kept watch, and it was both painful and moving. Chauvin showed no remorse, and at times he seemed smug as though he knew he was going to get away with it. I’m so glad that didn’t happen. Amid the ugliness we saw in the videos, we got to meet the brave bystanders who tried to save a man who they did not know. The compassion they showed stood out to me more than anything in that trial. The prosecutor referred to them as a bouquet of humanity. To the world they are heroes.

The title of this blog is Justice ending with a question mark. We have only won the battle in an ongoing war. Justice is a constant process, rarely an achievement. Back in school we were taught that the Civil Rights was a period in history, but truth be told, it has never ended. The saga continues. President Biden promises reform, but that’s hard when the far right is always trying to turn back the clock to the days where America was great only for those with the right skin color. Not everyone is looking for reformation or reparations. Not everyone is happy with the outcome of the trial.

There’s so much work ahead of us. Earth Day is a couple of days, and we need to work on saving the planet as well as ourselves. At least today was good day. Just need to take it one day at a time.