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Dear Sandra Parks, We’re So Sorry America Failed You
I hear and see examples of chaos almost everyday. Little children are victims of senseless gun violence. There’s too much black on black crime. As an African-American, that makes me depressed. Many people have Lost faith in America and it’s ability to be a living example of Dr. King’s dream!
Those meaningful words were delivered by an 11-year-old Black girl from Milwaukee, who entered her essay in the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. annual essay contest, that featured the theme — “We Shall Overcome.”
Sandra Parks, had the talent and the inspiration to detail how she manages to stay positive and hopeful, as she endures the violence around her and wonders why the dangerous culture of gun violence is allowed to thrive; despite the mounting casualties — young and old.
Her method of escapism through the calmness of music and how the immediacy of that embrace was second to none, mirrors how I used to block out the noise of military coups and the mandate to stay home until the curfew was lifted — when I was exactly her age — growing up in Lagos, Nigeria.
