commentary: hope 6:4

i don't know if you got to see al sharpton's eulogy
i thought it was
i'm trying to think of a word
i don't really want to say great
because that somehow sounds like it was a performance
and that's the opposite of what i want to say
i don't really want to say masterful
because that sounds like it was
maybe
manipulative or something
it's hard to find the word
not moving
because
that's not really what i want to say

maybe the best way
to both recognize
and give deserved props
is to use his own analogy

it was on time


i remember al sharpton when i was a kid
and i always kinda liked him
but i could see where a lot of white people wouldn't
he was slightly belligerent
he had that crazy james brown hair
he had something slick about him
that smacked of trouble
with a capital T
right here in river city

and he spoke to that
nobody calls me about stuff they want to keep quite
what i'm for is to blow it up
or words to that effect

but his age
has burnished him
into the kind of gravitas
that a man who has dedicated his life to his community
deserves to be seen with

and
he talked strangely
the exact right amount of time
not the terse too brief authoritarian bark of the little dog
or the well that seemed to wind down to less than it started
at least this is sounding somewhat presidential

sharpton had something for everyone
and it was very very real

the part
that spoke specifically to my heart
and don't misunderstand me
it all spoke to me
but
this
was
the thing i feel he said for me

he had been somewhere years ago
and a young white woman screamed at him
N***** go home
and then in the last few days
he was somewhere
and a young white girl
couldn't have been more than eleven or so
she tugged on the hem of his jacket

and he braced himself

and my heart went wide with the empathy of that
i can understand the concept of the boot on the neck
to some degree i can feel it
empathize
but it's a different kind of empathy
more universal

having to steel yourself
i've done that
lots of times
for one thing and another
but the idea
that ever time you'd go out in public
you'd need to steel yourself for that
a lifetime of that
hit me in an unexpected way
and then

the little girl held up the power fist
and said no justice no peace

and
i think i cried

it's a different time, he said

i hope so reverend sharpton, i hope so