Once again, we heard the words, and they heard them, i cant breathe. Elementalbrutality so it did more than deny one more black men in america his civil rights and human rights. It denied him of his very humanity, his life. Is as it george floyd deprived eric garner, one of the things every human being must be able to do, breathe. So simple, so basic, so brutal. The same thing happened with aubrey, breonna taylor, george floyd. We have spoken their names allowed, we have clyde we cried them out in pain and horror. We turned into a long, suffering chorus. It is the latest addition to the endless list of stalled potential wiped out unnecessarily. A list that dates back more than 400 years, black men, black women, black children. The original sin of this country still stains our nation today, and sometimes we manage to overlook it. We push forward with a thousand other tasks in our daily lives, but it is always there. In weeks like this, we see it plainly, that we are a country with an open wound. None of us can be silent. None of us can turn away. None of us can any longer hear the words i cant breathe and do nothing. We cant fail victims like what Martin Luther king called the appalling silence of good people. Every day, africanamericans go about their lives with the constant anxiety. Wondering who will be next. Imagine if every time your husband or son, wife or daughter left the house, you feared for their safety from bad actors and bad police. Imagine if you had to have that talk with your child about not asserting your rights, taking the abuse handed out to them just so they can make it home. Imagine having police call on you for sitting in starbucks or renting an airbnb or watching birds. This is the norm black people in this country deal with. They dont have to imagine it. The anger and frustration and exhaustion is undeniable. But that is not the promise of america. It is long past time that we made the promise of this nation real for all people. This is no time for incendiary tweets. No time to encourage violence. This is a national crisis, we need real leadership, leadership that will bring everyone to the table so we can take measures, root out systemic racism. It is time to take a hard look at the uncomfortable truths, it is time for us to face that deep, open wound we have in this nation. We need justice for george floyd. We need real police reform, hold cops to a higher standard that hold bad cops accountable. That repairs relationships between Law Enforcement and the community they are sworn to protect. We need to stand up as a nation with the black community, with all minority communities, and come together as one america. Thats the challenge we face. It is going to require those of us who sit in some position of influence to deal with the abuse of power, the pain is too immense for one community to bear alone. I believe it is the duty of every american to grapple with it and grapple with it now. With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence. Nothing about this will be easy or comfortable. If we allow this wound to scab over once more without treating the underlying injury, we will never truly heal. The very soul of america is at stake. We must commit as a nation to pursue justice with every ounce of our being, we have to pursue it with real urgency. We have to make real the promise of america, which it never fully grasped, that all men and women are equal. Not only in creation, but throughout their lives. To georges family, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I promise you, i promise you, we will do everything in our power to see to it that justice is had and your brother, cousin i love you all, folks, we have to stand up. Weve got to move. Got to change. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] monday, three democrats vying for the nomination to take on Mitch Mcconnell we join a special edition of Kentucky Educational televisions kentucky tonight program. They will discuss their Campaign Platforms and why they are running. Live coverage begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning, thomas frank will join us to talk about how the coronavirus pandemic could affect the federal governments response to hurricanes. North Carolina State University professor Benjamin Chapman talks about how covid19 has affected food safety in the u. S. Professoralexander, of epidemiology and medicine at the Bloomberg School of public health, on how the covid19 pandemic is affecting drug and alcohol addiction. Watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern sunday morning. Join the discussion. Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine says theres a 50 chance spacex crew dragon will launch saturday to the International Space station. When it does, it will mark the first u. S. Manned spaceflight since 2011. Other dates are available if the launch cannot take place. Good morning and welcome back to the Kennedy Space center for this Historic Mission as we prepare to launch bob and doug from right out there on that falcon 9 and crew dragon. An exciting time. Where