On behalf of the Rime Buddhist Center, I and the Rime Board of Directors want to express our sadness for the murder of George Floyd and all Black people who have been killed and oppressed over the last 400 years. The death of George Floyd is unacceptable and he is another victim in a long list of violence towards the Black community at the hands of police that must stop.
White supremacy and racist social systems have been the cause for so much suffering in our country. We have compassion for the pain and suffering that all this violence causes throughout our nation. We do not want fathers being ripped away from their children, leaving them traumatized for the rest of their lives. Mothers seeing their sons’ lives cut short in such violent ways, leaving them with the pain of losing their child.
It is time for us as a nation to wake up and take responsibility for 400 years of slavery and white supremacy which the wealth of this country was built on. To deny our guilt and ignore our history only perpetuates in traumatizing the Black community. We must not allow fear to continue to manifest into anger and hate. To heal the trauma of the Black community is to heal our nation as a whole.
We call for justice for George Floyd and the Black community who have been traumatized by white supremacy and systematic police violence and brutality. We understand that to try and heal the symptoms of racist inequality will never heal our society. It is only until we cure the cause of suffering, white supremacy, that our nation can heal. We call on cities, local and state agencies to demilitarize their police departments and root out racist policies and practices that have created racial inequities that continue to harm Black communities.
We call on our Rime membership to raise their voice in support of finding justice for George Floyd and the Black community. We also ask for those who can to help One Struggle KC and SURJ-KC with their efforts for #OperationLiberation which aims to assist with freeing Black people held in pretrial detention.
Lama Matthew Palden Gocha
Spiritual Director
Rime Buddhism Center
