Down For The Ride (Jonathan Toews)

Brielle

There comes a time in everyone's life where you have to decide what kind of person you want to be. You have to decide what you stand for and what you believe in.

You have to decide where you stand in the world. Even if you feel like you are standing alone.

Now, people may look at me and say that I would had a good outlook on life since the beginning. I never worried about money, I had a lot of things handed to me and honestly besides on the farm I didn't work much. I had little side jobs in college when I wasn't training for gymnastics but that's about it. Besides my brother getting cancer I didn't have much to complain about growing up, and the fact that I had money meant we could afford treatments and he gets to live his life to the fullest. My struggles have been few and my life has been easy for the most part.

I was a product of privilege and I knew it. And that's nothing bad, as long as you use it for good. I never took advantage of others knowing that I had more than them. I also worked hard to get where I am today. I've never experienced racism or classism or anything like that. I got bullied for having braces but hell at least I was able to afford them. But I would be a idiot to see this privilege and not what happens to those who don't have it and how it's costing people their lives.

Every February I do a few black history month videos and I get to learn something I was never told in school, I go under developed neighborhoods that people try to say are lies, but they're real. Of course the struggles these people face aren't just in February but it feels like it's the only time people listen. So I swallow the hard truth that there are problems in this world and without even knowing it, I was a part of the problem. But I also knew that I was part of the solution.

I have been a memeber of the Black Lives Matter movement for as long as it's been around. My dad was a part of the civil rights movement and this is my time. This is my movement.

And so it happened again, it always seems to happen again. We see another black man who was murdered for being black. The man George Floyd wasn't perfect, but none of us are. It's not our job to judge others sins knowing we're sinners ourselves. And I assure you his flaws wasn't worth him being choked to death in broad day light. No one deserves that. Imagine going on your phone and there's a police officer sitting on your dads neck and he is begging for his life. Not something you would want to do. But these kids with black parents or black friends or who are black, this is a real fear. And they have every right to be upset, angry, infuriated that this happened yet again.

And we can point our fingers at black on black violence, but that violence isn't race related. They're not shooting each other simply because the color of their skin. I can promise you that. All these ironic justifications for the people pulling the trigger or using in humane forms of discipline make me sick. You can argue George had a weak heart but he was just fine until there was a knee on his neck for nearly ten minutes. To look me in the eyes and tell me what is happening in this country... it makes me sick. I don't have to be black to know life is hard for black people. I work in a industry where there's not a lot of black or minority representation. I see that, and I try to include everyone from Muslim to African American to Hispanic to Asian, but I'm no president. There's not much I can do.

But I can join the protest, I can walk the streets knowing that we cannot allow this to happen again, and again, and again. When does it become too much? How many people have to die for a change to come? And I'm not taking about getting rid of the police, I'm talking about getting training so if a black man has a knife they can disarm them before they have 12 warning shots in their back. I'm talking more requirements for them to have before we put our lives in their hands. The police has saved my ass many times before, but I need them to save the lives of someone who looks like me but has darker skin.

"Where are you going" Jonny asks as I grab my purse. I look at him as I let out a sigh.

"I have to go" I say.

"To the protests" he asks.

Jonny was on the fence about a lot of things. He hated the video but he hated the rioting too. He doesn't agree with it and I understand. But the moment we shift our focus from the movement to the looting is the moment we lose all momentum that ends with change and I didn't want that to happen.

"It's not just a protest. It's a movement. It's a cry for help and they need more voices. I have a voice, I have a pretty loud voice so I should be there" I insist.

"It's not safe for you out there" he tries.

"It's not safe for black people in America but they don't have much of a choice, do they" I ask.

He lets out a long sigh as he looks at me with sad eyes.

He was torn up about the whole situation and his place in it. He's not from here and he feels like people don't give a shit about what he has to say when it comes to the problems we face here. He's a athlete and his job is to play a game. But he's also human and he knows what is happening is wrong. You don't have to be black to see injustice in this world. He works in a sport where you would only find less black people in golf. Maybe. He knows that if he says something he will be criticized, and he's right. Damned if you do damned if you don't kind of thing.

He also knows me and my stance on all of this and my feeling that I need to be out there. And he hates it. They're calling guards and using tear gas and it's a full on fight for peoples rights out there. But I've never been one to not say something when some on thing need to be said. And something needs to be said.

"Here" he says as he turns around. He pulls out a brand new mask and a bottle of water along with a bottle of milk. "I read milk helps with tear gas. I kind of figured you would be going out there and I would try to stop you but it wouldn't work" he admits and I smile.

"Thank you baby" I say as I take the stuff from him. He pulls me into a deep kiss making my knees go weak.

"You have to come home to me" he insists.

"I'll be home before sun down, I promise" I insist.

"Do you need your camera" he wonders.

"No camera, no videos and no posts. Just action" I say.

"I would come with you but-" he starts.

"Jon, you don't have to explain yourself. I get it. Protests aren't exactly everyone's cup of tea. I know where you stand on all of this and I know you're standing with me" I promise.

He smiles a little before nodding his head.

"Alright. Go out there and let it be known that change is coming, and it starts now" he insists.

"Yes sir" I smile.