Watching the reactions of people all over the world in response to the killing of George Floyd has been both deeply moving and powerfully engaging. Or should that spell enraging? Injustice of this scale takes no time for millions to stand, walk and take action. Those who have caught up with the news in between Coronavirus updates, have been met with a sickening fury. What we witness on cell phones and via online media platforms afflicts us at cell level. We scream at our screens. How could this happen? How did our world get here? Why did these officers continue such heinous measures, in front of an audience who were asking them to stop? Why did George have to beg for nearly 9 minutes? Why did this good man have to die? Why is a 6-year-old girl left without her father? Who next? Enough is enough. The footage was screened, streamed and under it came the slogans that would decorate our devices and hashtags that would fuel our hard drives. I can’t breathe. Blackout Tuesday. I stand. Black lives matter. The show must be paused. Slogans carry weight. They carry power. I CAN’T BREATHE now paints our skies from Minneapolis to Trafalgar Square. Three words that should have saved a life but ended it. These placards become our spiritual signposts and yet why is it so hard for us to grasp the message? Let’s look at the simple mirroring of events on our earth in 2020. The lungs of the planet burnt rapidly through January; our dear mother earth scorched in fires so wild it took months to extinguish. Then the virus came to attack our lungs. Victims left gasping for air, dependent on ventilation, desperate to breathe and survive. The very suffocation we are trying to battle in this global pandemic became one man’s avoidable end under a knee. Racism is the virus of our time. The very thought that we are superior to other beings is the infection we must rid ourselves of and find a vaccine for. George came to change the world. His death actioned life. It is actioning the very change we need to see and be in the world, today. Our words are power, our choice. May this incident in history humbly enable us to reach for peace and become the peace. Find your slogan, wear it, say it, become it….and please, send it our way. We want to hear from you. Contact: deborah@publicspeakingsolutions.co.uk