I never had the priveledge of meeting Tyesha Edwards. Over the past week I've wondered whether our paths would have crossed if things had turned out differently.
Maybe I would have met her at Banneker School, giving out an award to a promising girl who excelled in math. Or maybe in later years when she realized her dream of becoming a lawyer. Or when she became Mayor. I like to think I would have met her when I was walking down the street. I'd hear laughing up in a tree, look up and find Tyesha and her sister Kia in the branches in front of their house where they loved to climb. I'll never have the priveledge of meeting Tyesha. But I've come to know her, and I'm not alone. Over this horrible but extraordinary week thousands of us who may never crossed paths with Tyesha have come to know her. We heard about a girl who lived life so well, and with so much joy, that she was surrounded by friends and lifted up her classmates. About a girl who worked hard because she was on her way to big things. And we met her family...Linda and Leonard, Jimmy and Jimmy Jr., Kia, her Grandmother Cora and her husband Kenny, her uncles Ricky and Jimmy, and all the other aunts and uncles. Getting to know them it has become clear that Tyesha didn't grow up alone. She was formed by the love and character of a great and warm family, and they gave us all a gift. As we got to know Tyesha, she insprired us. Even the most hardened police, and attorneys and politicans....sometimes with tears in their eyes....got from her the energy and ingenuity it took to begin to bring about justice. And hundreds of people, some neighbors and friends, some total strangers, came to bring comfort to her family....lighting candles and making signs, from north and south, Mad Dads and Million Moms....to show that her life was not only about justice, it was about peace. How unfair it is that we won't be able to meet Tyesha. But there will be many ways we can continue to know her: :The Kwanza celebration she performed in last year will be held this year in her honor. :Every year a scholorship will be awarded in her name to a student as promising as she :was. :A tree will be planted at the school so other kids can climb into the branches and :see what she and Kia saw. There will be many other signs, and each one should remind us about what we have all lost and what we have all gained. But the most important signs of Tyesha may be those we can't see and touch....the signs that show us that one person can find a way into a whole community's heart. They will show us that at a special moment in time in Minneapolis, a girl lived her life so well, and with so much joy, that she reminded us all to find a way for each of us to do what we can to bring about not only justice...but also peace. To do what we can to love our brothers and sisters, those in our own families and those we don't know. To reach out across boundries to find those who really aren't that different after all. In that way we will have the priveledge of knowing Tyesha. And when we say her name it will be with love. R.T.Rybak _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
