07/24/2026
For two days, me, amongst others from our organization has taken to the streets to stand for Corey because he can no longer stand for himself. When a tragic event occur it’s difficult to know what to say, when and how to say it. It is challenging to know what to do, when and how to do it. So, we show up!
Listening, as Corey’s sister fought through tears, her voice breaking with every plea for justice. Watching Corey’s mother struggle to catch her breath between cries, tears that no parent should ever have to wipe away, fighting to find the strength as she rode amongst the crowd in honor of her son, was heartbreaking. Hearing the little voices of his niece and nephew thank everyone for the support was too much!
Day two was, for sure, harder than day one. Two days of life Corey should have still been breathing. Two days of the police department NOT getting it right.
Chanting, “TOGETHER WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL” I’m reminded that justice has never been won by spectators. It has always required ordinary people choosing to stand together when it would have been easier to look away. This is solidarity and accountability. That, no family should have to stand alone in demanding truth, accountability, and dignity after losing someone they love. That, those words are a warning. A warning which reminds us that Division protects injustice. Unity makes it impossible to ignore. The chant reminds us that our collective voices are stronger than our individual fears. When a community refuses to be divided, it becomes harder for injustice to remain hidden.
We know racism exists, it’s been an epidemic, just not recognized as one. Racism and anti-Black racism is also, A direct DISTRACTION from healthy living and healing. Two things that WE ALL Deserve and are WORTHY of.
Just imagine for one moment, what becomes possible when we are free to simply LIVE! to heal without interruption, to breathe without hypervigilance, to love without fear, and to live without carrying the weight of trauma created by systems of oppression.
Anti-Black racism steals time, energy, peace, and possibility. Imagine what our communities could become if we weren’t forced to spend so much of our lives recovering from wounds we did not create.
YES! We absolutely! Deserve the opportunity to live free from unnecessary psychological harm, chronic emotional distress, and the constant burden of proving our humanity.
We deserve lives where our energy is invested in building, creating, dreaming, and thriving! not merely surviving. We deserve to direct our brilliance toward joy, innovation, family, community, and purpose! not toward surviving racism.
Healing is more than the absence of pain. And we must understand that LIBERATION is not simply the absence of oppression. Both are the presence of peace, safety, dignity, and the freedom to become everything we were always capable of being.
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To our Dear Community, WE LOVE YALL AND WE ARE HERE FOR YOU! FOR US! We STAND with COREY D. RUIZ’s Family
