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Sohn: What’s in a gesture? More often than not just love – and the seeking of unity, solidarity for America

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Emily Stoddard, of East Ridge High School, and Jordon Austin, of Red Bank High School lead a Monday march across the Walnut Street Bridge to Coolidge Park. High School students and others organized the protest after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the maltreatment of others by police and authorities.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Emily Stoddard, of East Ridge High School, and Jordon Austin, of Red Bank High School lead a Monday march across the Walnut Street Bridge to Coolidge Park. High School students and others organized the protest after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the maltreatment of others by police and authorities. Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Emily Stoddard, of East Ridge High School, and Jordon Austin, of Red Bank High School lead a Monday march across the Walnut Street Bridge to Coolidge Park. High School students and others organized the protest after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the maltreatment of others by police and authorities.

By Pam Sohn 5 min read

Why is it that kids are smarter than most adults, especially about getting along for the future?

Take, for instance, this speech to blacks and black supporters last week by a local 17-year-old member of Chatt Students for Justice:

“As someone who is not African American, I would like to represent the non-black people standing before us right now and say I am sorry. I am sorry that the promise of equality was not given to you on Jan. 1, 1863, with the Emancipation Proclamation. I am sorry that it wasn’t given to you on July 2, 1964, with the Civil Rights Act or even today, June 8, 2020, as we continue to mourn the countless African American lives lost due to police brutality,” Siena Rodrigues said. “I am here to say that I see you, I hear you and I stand with you. Not just today or tomorrow or next week but until you do not live in fear.”

The Signal Mountain Middle/High School student was really just getting warmed up.

“I am almost 18 years old, and I am privileged. I am privileged because I don’t fear for myself when I go to a gas station, get pulled over, go out jogging or even sit in my very own house. … I’m privileged to have a community that will accept me for who I am and listen to what I have to say,” she said. “Yet who am I to come out and recognize my privilege and not do anything about it? Who am I to recognize these injustices, this inequality, this systematic racism … only to not do something about it?”