Thank you, Amsa Burke, for being a voice for our Black community

I would like to thank CDN’s Lifestyle Editor Cocoa Laney for giving us the interview with Amsa Burke (CDN, July 6, 2024). This is an open letter to Amsa.

Dear Amsa,

Thank you for being a voice for your Black community. Thank you, for expressing yourself so well to the white community. Your searching to understand, to raise your voice and to organize a racial justice march in 2020 meant so very much to me. This is why your actions gave me great comfort and courage.

I also want to remind the readers that this racial justice march was after the death of George Floyd. For many people, George Floyd’s death at the hands of four police officers was just a short blip on the news cycle. For many other people, those in the Black and marginalized community, the death of George Floyd was another unbelievable atrocity to another Black person. George’s death at the hands of four police officers was a modern day lynching.

I am a white woman and I am married to a white man and we lived in a predominately white city. We raised two Black sons to adulthood. I think I understand what a Black mother to Black children must feel when they see injustices to Black and marginalized people.

We had just moved to Lynden in April of 2020, after retiring in Boise, Idaho. We were so excited to be in our chosen place, in the PNW!  Then the death of George Floyd occurred. A Black man who was on his stomach and held down by police officers until he died. One officer had his knee in his neck. One officer made the comment that they had lost his pulse.

All the officers heard George say “I cannot breathe.” There were many courageous people who filmed that incident on their phones. There was even a courageous young woman, still in her teens, who filmed the whole episode and posted it online for the world to see.

I remember being in my downstairs apartment in Lynden, just wondering what in the world is happening. This injustice to George Floyd could also very well happen to my own sons. My neighbors were quiet. My church didn’t offer up prayers for George Floyd or the crises and rage that were happening in the country. It felt like no one really cared, at least no one around me.

Then I saw people on Front Street, in Lynden, who were raising their voice and defending Black lives. They were there nearly every day, a group of four or five people, sometimes larger, sometimes fewer. Their voice and actions confirmed in me that some people in my community cared.

I saw your racial justice march advertised and I attended. I put two signs on my bike and walked in the parade. I remember someone chanting the names of Black people, whose lives were extinguished because of racial injustices. I was thrilled to raise my voice.

So thank you, for all you did and are doing to improve the lives of those who are around you. Your voice and actions give me hope. I wish you much luck and success at Howard University and in your future endeavors. You matter. You are making the world a better place for all. 

Former Lynden resident Jane Janzen lives in Bellingham.