I woke up this morning pondering my own mortality. (As far as I know, I am perfectly healthy). But this is the gift of the pandemic – putting life in its most simple and most stark terms. And so I ponder…

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd repeatedly told police officers, “I can’t breathe.” This is not the first time a black man has died in police custody after saying, “I can’t breathe.” In 2014, Eric Garner told police eleven times, “I can’t breathe,” before he died, face down on the sidewalk in New York City. Over the past decade, at least 70 people have died in custody after saying the same words — “I can’t breathe,” according to The New York Times (Three Words. 70 Cases. The Tragic History of I Can’t Breathe,” June 29, 2020). The majority of them were stopped for minor infractions, calls to 911 about suspicious behavior, or mental health concerns. More than half were black.

Police brutality is real. Systemic racism is real.

Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy

As a climate activist, I am sometimes asked to help people connect the dots between racism and climate change. I talk about air pollution, heat waves, rising sea levels, and vector borne illnesses like malaria and dengue fever and the disproportionate impact of each of these on people of color, poor people, and people in foreign countries. I talk about our extractive industries such as mining, logging, and fossil fuels, and the sacrifice zones associated with these industries. And by sacrifice zones, I mean places here and overseas where industries are forcing people to move off their land or exposing them to toxins or increased levels of crime and corruption. And in some cases, killing people because of their non-violent resistance to the extraction.

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, sums it up when he says, “too many people have been too comfortable for too long with other people’s desperation and other people’s death.”

Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy

People are being killed by racism and by climate change. Our systems are violent. It could not be simpler or more clear. I have come to believe there is no difference between racial justice and climate justice. Racial justice is climate justice. And climate justice is racial justice. Once you see it – really see it – it cannot be unseen.

Stark realities.

And we are the people of God. Called to be salt and light. Called to heal a broken world. Hear these words from the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr, president of the Hip Hop Caucus: “Probably the most important thing is to believe that we were made for this moment. We were put on this planet at this time to fight this battle. That’s the most amazing gift we’ve been given by the Almighty: We are so needed.”