“Wake up all the teachers time to teach a new way
Maybe then they’ll listen to whatcha have to say
Cause they’re the ones who’s coming up and the world is in their hands
When you teach the children teach em the very best you can”
-“Wake Up Everybody”, by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
Good day, all you beautiful heathens!
As many of you know, I do my best to keep the tone of these posts as upbeat and celebratory as possible. Today’s post honors the birth of Emmett Till, rather than his tragic death.
On July 25, 1941, Till, an African American boy was born in Illinois. The only son of a single mother, he survived a bout of polio, but it left him with a permanent stutter. He was often the center of attention amongst his peers and friends due to his keen sense of fashion, and a penchant for playing pranks.
In August of 1955 – when he was only 14 years old – he went to Mississippi to visit some family. After being accused of offending a white woman, he was abducted, tortured and lynched. The men who killed him were acquitted by an all-white jury.
Today, July 25, 2023, 68 years after this event, the current US administration signed in a proclamation that established a monument to honor Emmett Till. Spread across three areas, these federally-protected places serve as a reminder of our still-long path of healing, and making strides to become better – as a nation, as a world, as people.
If there’s one thing that Heathenry teaches us, is to be, to do better. To embrace the ever-changing flow of our world. Many old nations were built on the backs of slaves, but a civilization, a culture, is built on learning, understanding where we went wrong, and making strides to grow and become better.
So, with that, I’ll leave you with a simple question and a challenge: how can we, as individuals, be better?
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
https://apnews.com/article/emmett-till-monument-national-proclamation-civil-rights-7c9c5e6b7ce18c9180f943b512bb4032
https://apnews.com/article/biden-monument-emmett-till-black-civil-rights-6d26b248f906a4ce5654cb2f11c9ffa2
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
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