Commencement speaker reminds of need for justice

On May 8, while we celebrated the Emory University School of Medicine 2020 graduation, sending our future physicians into the world, there was also the breaking news in the arrest of two men in the murder of Mr. Ahmaud Arbery, a young African American male, who was out on a run in South Georgia and gunned down in broad daylight. The GBI held a press conference and announced the charging of the father and son with murder and aggravated assault.

May 8th is also my husband’s birthday, a man of color like Mr. Arbery, who celebrated another year of life while Mr. Arbery did not. A piece of me died inside — yet again, and I cried and cried again for Mr. Arbery, for his family, and for us as a society.

The national outcry was palpable. In all these reflections and moments of truth, it made me pause and once again ask where are we as a country — as a nation whose Constitution’s preamble begins with “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility” and you know the rest.

Where was the justice for Mr. Arbery, whose murder occurred 74 days prior? On May 10th, Mother’s Day, there was no justice nor peace for his mother on the first Mother’s Day without her son.

In the joys of Emory’s graduation on May 11th, the keynote addressant was Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and the author of the critically acclaimed memoir “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.” He reminded us that “To change the world, we’re going to have to do uncomfortable and inconvenient things.”

Indeed, we must speak up against injustice and dare to have hope and belief to speak up. We were reminded that the opposite of hope is injustice. We must hope and proactively continue to push for justice for Mr. Arbery, justice for all humanity.

Sheryl L. Heron, M.D., is a professor and assistant dean at Emory University School of Medicine. Her thoughts expressed here are her own.