Earlier this month I had a ministry conference in Minneapolis. I’m a member of DOTAC which stands for Diakonia of The America’s and Caribbean and they meet every four years. This was the first time I could go and it was held in Minneapolis … the next conference in 2027 will be somewhere in the Caribbean so I’m really hoping I can make that one.
As a part of the conference, we did site visits around the city. The visit I went on was to the George Floyd memorial, which is located at the intersection of E 38th street and Chicago Ave., right where he was killed.
It was a very impactful experience. It is hard to find the words to describe it. It is similar to when someone asks me after a funeral how the funeral went, and the answer of “the funeral went well” seems like a strange one to give.
I did not enjoy my time at the memorial, but I am glad I went. I did not have fun, but it was an experience I will never forget and will come to mind often.
The leaders who walked us around the site, answered questions and gave us information, were local men from that neighbourhood. One of them was there the day that George Floyd was killed, he even tried to replace the fake $20 bill that was the reason for the police being called. It was chilling to not just hear their story, but to also hear that not a lot has changed in their neighbourhood. Yes, there is a memorial, and a road sign but the city has not made anything permanent or given aid to the community itself to help it heal.
One of the things that one of the leaders said is that they call themselves a “tourist interrupter.” He started our walk asking us if we were tourists (the proper answer was no, we are pilgrims). We were reminded that this was not a tourist area, it was a memorial, it was a murder scene. They did not mind if we took pictures, but were very upset if someone drove by, never got out of their car, and took pictures from their vehicle. This was something you needed to step into, an experience you needed to feel with your whole being, not just something that you snapped a pic of while you drove by.
That is one of the things that I have taken away. What other aspects of my life are sacred, important, meaningful events that I just drive by without even stopping to fully experience it?
People still live in that community, George’s family (I happened to just by chance meet his aunt while walking back to my hotel) still live in the community. The community is still suffering from what happened in those nine minutes.
It is not a place to tour, it is a place to journey with those who have suffered and are still suffering.
Where in our own community do we need to walk alongside those who are suffering?