A tribute to George Perry Floyd, Oct. 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020

By Stephen Niamke
Pax Christi USA national field organizer

Use this link to read Pax Christi USA’s statement following the death of George Floyd in 2020.

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We remember and pray…

Today, five years hence, we pray—
but not with folded hands alone.
Let our prayer be our witness, our action.
Let our grief become Gospel peace.

Let us dismantle the systems that crush breath.
Let us reimagine public safety rooted in human dignity.
Let us tell the truth about our history—
and build a future where no one’s skin is a death sentence.

We recall to ourselves and others:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees… you tithe mint and dill and cumin, but neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. — Matthew 23:23

We confess and lament…

This is no isolated wound, nor is it coincidence or happenstance –
Breonna, Eric, Sandra, Trayvon, Philando, Tamir, Sonya, Ahmaud … and so many more.
A list so long that commemorative t-shirts are commonplace
and become outdated almost as fast as they are printed.

George Floyd’s death was not an “accident” of one man’s cruelty—
but the symptom of a society infected by a deeper disease:
the disease that dehumanizes, commodifies, criminalizes,
and disposes of Black bodies at its convenience.

Too many times we have asked: “What did he or she do?”
when we should be asking: “What have we become?”

It began with chains in the hold of slave ships,
with auctions and lynchings,
with laws designed destroy and divide,
and an obnoxious definition of silence as a sign of peace.

Even the casual observer can see
we are a soul-sick nation
turning in on itself,
crumbling, dissolving, melting, deteriorating
from the inside out.

We are the epitome of hypocrisy
claiming freedom for some while brutally enslaving others.
We brilliantly invent new ways to separate and subjugate.
We are historically, systemically, and habitually violent.
When challenged we revert to lies, schemes, and extremes.

Like an addict caught in a cycle of destruction,
not recognizing their own self-abuse.
We fail to understand that banning books and kneeling on necks will not change our course.
We are most embarrassed by our lack of embarrassment.
We have become what we despise.

We recall to ourselves and others:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor… to let the oppressed go free. — Luke 4:18

We commit and take action…

The Gospel does not call us to polite neutrality.
It calls us to radical mercy,
to prophetic justice,
to risk our comfort for our neighbor’s dignity.

Every person is sacred.
Our silence is complicit.
Peace without justice is not peace at all.
Solidarity demands we walk with, not merely speak for.

Let this memorial be more than a moment.
Let it be a movement.
Let George Floyd’s name be not just etched in pain—
but in the blueprint of a new nation
where “justice rolls down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)

As members of Pax Christi USA, we recall to ourselves and others the words of Pope Paul VI: “If you want peace, work for justice!”