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I am writing this on June 4, 2020. Today is a day to remember. Respects were paid and goodbyes were said at the memorial services for George Floyd not only in his own city, but all around the world. No matter your age or how hectic your life may be during these rather unfortunate and crucial times, everyone knows about or has been affected by the murder of George Floyd, the victim of yet another senseless and unjust murder.

Regardless of your race, religion or political affiliation, you cannot avoid the movement for change that is necessary now more than ever. George Floyd is just one of countless victims in our country’s unjust history whose right to live as an American has been taken away from them.

Ask yourself, do you want your children or your children’s children to have to deal with the racial discrimination that plagues the world? What are you going to do to help change the narrative?

I have a suggestion: be the change you wish to see through your actions.

Always remember that there is strength in numbers. These past days are proof of that. The world was united around a good cause. Now tell me, what cause will you stand for?

As a father, a son, a brother and an uncle, my heart is heavy. My eyes filled with tears as I sat in my prison cell and watched what had been taking place out in the world on my little TV.

It makes me feel even more confined inside this prison because I can’t do anything to help. I can’t be a solution to the problem.

 
Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author. The Prison Journalism Project has verified the writer’s identity and basic facts such as the names of institutions mentioned. The work is lightly edited but has not been otherwise fact-checked.

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D.A. Gamboa

D.A. Gamboa is a writer incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison in California. D.A. Gamboa has requested that his first name be withheld.