Today I’m supposed to be writing about some health topic or other. But just before starting, I glanced through my Facebook wall and caught a video of the brutal police action that took place yesterday against a group of peaceful student demonstrators at UC Davis. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The police just calmly and deliberately walked up to these people, who were sitting on the ground with arms linked, and fired pepper spray directly into their faces, over and over again. It was like watching torture. These courageous students continued sitting there–crying in pain, but still just sitting there, arms linked in solidarity. I started to cry and couldn’t stop for an hour.
I thought about how I spent my day yesterday while this was going on. I did good things, I think. I spent the whole day at my acupuncture clinic seeing patients. I hope I helped people. I came home tired. But I was relatively safe and comfortable all day. Now I think about these students, most of them probably younger than my own sons, and marvel at their courage and conviction. They put their bodies on the line and risked severe injury. They did this for all of us. They didn’t budge. And the world is a better place because of them.
