“I can’t breathe”

The two major disrupters in the world today suggest an even deeper issue … of the human heart 

The image of George Floyd being held down by the policeman and saying “I can’t breathe” is a very potent one. Now is a pivotal time for our culture, a Kairos moment. We have been watching images for a number of weeks of COVID-19 patients on ventilators where “they can’t breathe.” It is as though there is a resonance in the community mind: a being “held down” by oppression in one form or another.

We are in the midst of an unprecedented event, having to remain indoors to “protect the NHS” and secondly to protect those most at risk from catching the virus. People are feeling more anxious, fearful, aggressive, unloved and, in a sense, rootless.

Ironically, this eruption of violence in the “Black Lives Matter” campaign, contains a seed for the hope for the future: that in making life better for others we make life better for ourselves. But where are our leaders in this rising tide of anger and resentment? What is their response in this time of political correctness which is stifling freedom of expression – “we can’t breathe?”