I wrote a story called “Sunset in America” for my Medium page a couple of years ago. I was writing in support of the blossoming protests against police violence that were happening in Louisville and then across the nation. As we approach the Fourth of July, I want to quote myself and expand on this idea because the energy of those days, is needed now as much as it was then. 

“To quote the asshole fire chief who let 11 black people including children burn in a Philadelphia building in 1985, ‘Let the fire burn.’ Let the riots and the protests continue. Fuck it up, kids. If you march in peace, march in peace, but I’m not going to tell anyone how to be angry. To remake a nation we have to begin by destroying the symbols of its empire. America is a nation founded and consistently changed when its citizens decide enough is enough and begin to chip away at the systems that have held too many of us under its foot for so long. This has never happened without a riot.” 

This time it isn’t simply police violence that needs to shift in America, but America that needs to shift. From top to bottom, side to side, this nation is due for a reckoning. It is due to be remade — from the people who hold the seats of power to the documents that govern that power. This nation is on life support because too many fail to see that it’s a place that does not need resuscitation. It needs to die of natural causes.