“Progress rolls like a brick.”
Jerry Blackwell, one of the lead prosecutors in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, was asked what changed as a result of the verdict.
“I don’t think there are any inevitabilities in it because we don’t make progress on the wheels of inevitability. In face, I think progress rolls like a brick. Each one has to be flipped each time. There’s no reason to believe it’ll be easier going forward than it was to get here.”
It’s tempting to think we’ve hit an inflection point and things will finally get easier. But history doesn’t support that notion. As much as we want to believe in coasting to the finish line once we’ve done the climb, reality doesn’t seem to match that metaphor.
Rest? Of course. Recover? Absolutely. Celebrate? For sure, when appropriate. But then it’s up to you and me to keep flipping the brick of progress.
Seek justice. Protect the vulnerable. Lots of people throughout history sacrificed everything to flip those bricks. But the work isn’t done, and it won’t finish itself.
It’s up to you and me to flip the next brick.