‘Hope is not lost here’: Bluffton community hosts tribute to George Floyd
About a hundred people, almost all wearing masks, gathered Tuesday morning at a Bluffton Park to honor the memory of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of police has ignited activism and unrest across the world.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died May 25 after a white police officer in Minneapolis held his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. His funeral was held in Houston Tuesday morning.
The Bluffton tribute, hosted by the town, started with eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence before Mayor Lisa Sulka began the open-mic event with a speech reflecting on the location, Oscar Frazier Park’s Field of Dreams.
The park is named for the poet laureate of Bluffton, who served as mayor pro tem on Bluffton town council and sat on a variety of local committees. Frazier died in 2005 from liver cancer.
“Create your dream,” Sulka said. “Wouldn’t it be great if your dream was created in the Field of Dreams at Oscar Frazier Park?”
More than a dozen community members — including veterans, town council members, religious leaders, young activists and others — spoke at the event, which followed a week of protests and demonstrations around Beaufort County. Some called on each other to vote, while others implored further action toward solving problems caused by racism.
“We cannot effect change if we’re going to continue to want to be comfortable,” said Bridgette Frazier, the daughter of Oscar Frazier and a Bluffton council member herself. “We can’t do that. We have to get uncomfortable. And in our society, we have been comfortable for far too long.”
She encouraged people to vote but said action shouldn’t stop there.
“We’ve been voting for centuries, since we have had the ability to vote, and yet our issues still remain,” she said. “The issue of racism still remains.”
Frazier called on allies to the cause of black issues to educate themselves on the history of racism, listen to the anger and frustration black people feel instead of judging them for the way they protest, take action to bring other police officers who have committed acts of brutality to justice and participate in dialogues with the Bluffton Police Department through the Police Advisory Task Force.
Other speakers testified about experiencing racism locally and elsewhere.
“A comment I got a lot was, ‘Oh, you act so white,’” said Walter Wheeler of Bluffton. “You might think that’s a compliment. But, coming off, it really isn’t.”
Gen. Lloyd “Fig” Newton, a retired U.S. Air Force four-star general and the first African-American pilot in the Air Force Thunderbirds, spoke about the military.
“I served for 34 1/2 years in the United States Air Force. And it’s just unbelievable to me, that our nation will send me 8,000 miles away to engage in combat for the freedom of others. And we will not engage for the freedom of our citizens and all of our citizens right here at home. We’ve got to change that formula. And we can.
“Hope is not lost here,” he said. “... This is the beginning, and we can really make that change.”
A mile-long protest march is planned to start at the Field of Dreams Wednesday at 5 p.m.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 2:33 PM.
