American in Doha, thinking about Ferguson

I woke up early this morning, checked the news, and realized that the announcement of decision reached by the grand jury on whether or not a white policeman would be indicted for murder, for shooting an unarmed black man, was imminent. The news apps weren’t keeping up with real time so I switched to twitter, which was already exploding with anticipation and speculation. I followed the announcement, reactions, trending hashtags, until it was time to rouse the kids. I explained the bare bones of what was going on to my 10-year-old as she ate her breakfast, and we listened to Ella’s song in the car as we drove to school.

I feel very far away, and also, by virtue of so many concerned friends on FB, very connected to what is happening.  I admit to being relieved to be abroad at such a time, and I'm also aware of the irony of avoiding action in my own country by being in one that has even less tolerance for social unrest (example: today South Asian workers are being arrested and deported for mostly non-violently protesting low wages and poor working conditions).  The distance also makes me feel disconnected to the conversation and action that’s going on.  Is there a better word than dialogue, because there are clearly more than two voices, thank goodness- there are a multitude. Could we say polylogue? In any case here I am adding my voice to the fray. 

I don’t trust the media, either traditional or social, to give me a non-manipulated version of events, but it’s all I have to work with from here. I appreciate the message from Michael Brown’s family and will bring it home to discuss with my kids.  I’ve also read the ACLU response with my daughter.  I’m not surprised there’s anger and destruction. While I grew up among people who promoted nonviolent ways of coping with situations, I can feel the heat of people’s anger from here and know its source is much deeper and broader than one shooting, one announcement from a rep of the US justice system, and I can feel that it needs to burn out a little more before some people can start listening to each other or even to the words from his family. 

What can I do, here? 

When I’m talking about it with my kids I’m going to try to convey the systemic issues that have led to the anger in evidence across their home country right now.  I want them to be able to notice social/political/economic patterns and to consider about how those patterns play out for different people, and think about how we can alter them to make things fairer.  I’m also going to encourage them to give thought and attention, and action, even if the action is simply sharing information, to events around the world that don’t prompt millions of tweets an hour or televised riots or announcements from our president. 

Sources I'll share with them: 

http://www.amnesty.org

http://www.transparency.org

https://www.aclu.org

The conversation will continue.