With groups of young people taking over downtown Columbus, the George Floyd protests are unique in how decentralized their organization has been and how social media was used to coordinate thousands to converge on downtown.

Many groups have shared the mic and they have similar goals to completely restructure the concept of policing.

But this decentralized movement – a fundamental strategy for today’s protesters – has led some local protesters to separate themselves from others so to promote what some believe are “softened” demands to city government and Columbus police.

At warp speed many protesters soon felt they were being led by people they have never met, who are spreading a message many protesters don’t agree with.

How did the Columbus protests become co-opted by group(s) who don’t share the same vision and goals as the majority of protesters? And just exactly who are some of these group(s) who seemingly materialized out of clouds of tear gas?

In written Chinese, the word “crisis” is represented by two characters. One of these, taken alone, means “danger”. The other, by itself, means “opportunity”. A crisis nearly always leads to great change. There is a danger that this will be a change for the worse. But there also is the opportunity to change society for the better - to reform and improve it. Both paths are present in a crisis like our present one. We must strive with all our strength to make society take the right path.

Our present crisis

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is in itself a crisis, many American cities have erupted in massive protests over the senseless killing by police of yet another black man - George Floyd. The country is deeply divided. Throughout the world there have been anti-racist protests, partly in sympathy with the US protesters, and partly because racism exists in many countries.

Love is Letting Go of Fearis the title of a small book  with a big message. You can think of love and fear as sides of a coin: while the one side is dominant, the other side is negated.

In our current situation, there is a lot of fear going around concerning the COVID virus. But is it rational?

If it’s true that love and fear, light and dark, life and death are sides of a coin, we have the ability to decide which side of the coin we are going to turn up. It’s a choice. Yes, even life and death because we make choices every day that effect the quality and quantity of our life. And we can choose to NOT be afraid.

Remember the Law of Attraction: “that which is like unto itself is drawn.” What we focus our energy and attention on is what we manifest in our life.

The mass marches against racism and police brutality have changed us all.

But they’re not enough.

All these gatherings need voter registration tables with detailed information on how to save the election currently scheduled for November 3.  

Too many uprisings have shaken the nation, then faded away. 

We all must vote. But this year, there’s much more to do. 

Stripped voter rolls, a sabotaged vote by mail system, a flipped vote count … these chokeholds can kill American democracy. Come November 3, unless we act, we can’t breathe.  

Millions of election protection activists must work every precinct, county, and state election center. Grassroots networks must protect how this election will be conducted. Our very survival depends on making sure there’s a national vote this fall that truly reflects the will of the American people.

That means dealing with 2020’s “election protection trinity”:

Registration rolls  

The killing of black man George Floyd by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has produced the highest level of national unrest seen in the United States since the 1960s. Tens of thousands of protesters are demonstrating against racism and perceived police brutality. As it also comes at a time of coronavirus pandemic and record unemployment, it has the potential to change the U.S. in fundamental ways. The core issue is that many on the left, as well as some on the right, see America’s police as something like an “occupying force,” increasingly self-serving enemies of the people rather than careful protectors of the taxpayers’ lives and property.