Kristopher Larsen, Nederland. There is no doubt 2020 will occupy a unique place in the history of our town, our country, and our planet. As the year began, all eyes were on Australia as it suffered through that country’s worst wildfires ever. We watched as the political situation between the United States and Iran, North Korea, and Russia continued to devolve. Our daily lives were turned upside down by the impact of Covid-19 on our town, almost in more ways to list. Climate change continues to be the issue that threatens to dwarf the pandemic, but which seems to have fallen beneath our collective attention. 

And most recently, protests have erupted across the country triggered by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, just the latest in an unfortunately long line of senseless deaths suffered by the black and brown community across the country. A line of oppression and murder that goes back to the earliest days our country and one of the original sins upon which it was founded. George Floyd’s name joins an unacceptably long list of those who have been murdered by the establishment upon which our society exists. 

We can all recognize the ways in which our privilege in this matter exists. We are fortunate to have a police department that are allies and not adversaries. We are fortunate to live where we do. I, for one, know that I can never understand the depth of the situation or what it is to be black in America today but I am fortunate to be able to listen to and stand as an ally to those suffering and seeking equality. If the events of the last few days have shown me anything, it is that we all must be standing together in any and every way possible. 

When Covid battered our economy, I hoped it would be an opportunity for us to reassess some of the fundamentals of our society and make changes to provide healthcare for everyone, living wages that more fairly compensated those who provide the ‘essential’ services, and bring science and sanity back to national policy. With protests exposing the worst of our nation’s sins, I hope we have the opportunity to address the racial inequalities baked into every aspect of our country, from educational opportunity to criminal reform, from the deep-seated racism that continues to exist throughout the country to centuries of laws designed to trap millions of Americans in inescapable poverty. 

If 2020 has taught us anything thus far, it is that there is an immense amount of work to be done by all of us. Work that won’t come easy, won’t come quickly, won’t be without it’s struggles or setbacks, but work that we must all come together to do so that we can all live in the society we aspire to, whether we are privileged to live in Nederland or not. 

“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.” Martin Luther King Jr.

(Originally published in the June 4, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)