#IrunwithMaud

I decided not to go to my Dad's house.  I thought about it a lot.  I talked to my sister about it several times.  And I decided not to go.  More than likely he would be safe.  But there's a chance, and I couldn't justify my desire to see him with the small chance that I, or one of my family, would give the virus to him.  My sister and I talked about meeting him halfway at a rest area, just the two of us, so we could visit with him.  We have done that before, well, at a restaurant for lunch.  So, I just called him yesterday to wish him a happy birthday.

Have you heard of Ahmaud Arbery?  He's been all over social media this week.

Ahmaud was a black male living in Georgia.  On a nice February day he went for a run through his hometown.  During his run a 64 year old white male saw him run by his house and called for his 34 year old son, that the "suspect" of several burglaries was running down the street (Ahmaud was in jogging shorts and a white tshirt, just running in the middle of the day).  The man and his son grabbed their guns and followed Ahmaud.  One story I heard said that they confronted him but Ahmaud turned around and ran a different way (I only heard that once, not sure where).  They proceeded to follow him and eventually blocked the road he was running on.  Another white male followed Ahmaud with a cellphone videoing the encounter when Ahmaud approached the man and the son.  Ahmaud tried to go around, and while he's in the front of the truck that the father was standing in a gunshot rang out and then you see Ahmaud and the son come out from the front of the truck struggling over a gun and go out of the video.  That's as far as I saw, but the reports are that Ahmaud comes back into the video and another shot rings out and he falls in the middle of the road.

That happened February 23.  The father and son?  They were questioned, the authorities were given the video, and they were allowed to go their own way.  For 75 days.  The father was a retired police office who had personal ties to the local police and the prosecutors.  These men deliberately chased down an innocent man in the middle of the day and murdered him because of the color of his skin.  It wasn't until a radio show got it's hands on the video and aired it this week that any action was done.  Once the video went viral, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) took over and yesterday.  just yesterday.  the man and his son were arrested.  75 days later.

Picture the races being reversed.  Ahmaud was white, and the man and his son were black.  There would have been immediate action 75 days ago.

George and Travis McMichaels were arrested last night.  Today would have been Ahmaud's 26th birthday.  He was young.  He was exercising.  He was black.

The running community (I don't remember which specific community) asked us to run 2.23 miles today on his birthday for Ahmaud.  2.23 miles represents February 23rd, when he was murdered.

I posted this on social media today:

As a white woman who runs primarily outside alone I have never feared running in the neighborhoods of my hometown, nor of the town I work in. Today, as I ran I turned down a street I've never run before without even thinking of it. Suddenly on that street I realized what I had done, and felt overwhelmingly sad that others do not have that option. You should be able to run down a neighborhood street without fear.

Being a woman runner has it's own challenges, but I have never had to fear for my life because of the color of my skin. Nor should anyone else in this world.

Today #irunwithmaud with sadness in my heart. He was only 25. His murderers were not arrested nor charged with a crime. This is America. #JusticeForAhmaud