PHILADELPHIA—Meanwhile, as the Fellowship of the Happy Unicorns was breaking up outside, the real damn stuff was happening onstage, where seven mothers spoke to the convention of the children they'd lost to vigilante violence, both outside and under the color of law.
"It is a personal loss. It is a national loss," said Geneva Reed-Veal, mother to Sandra Bland, who died in police custody in Houston.
"Give me a few moments to tell you how good God is. Give me a moment to say thank you. We are not standing here because he's not good. We are standing here because he is great," Reed-Veal said. "One year ago yesterday, I lived worst nightmare anyone could imagine. I watched as my daughter, Sandra Bland, was lowered into the ground in a coffin. She was my fourth of five daughters, and she was gone. No, no. Not on administrative leave, but on permanent leave from this earth, found hanging in a jail cell after an unlawful traffic stop and an unlawful arrest.
"Six other women have died in custody that same month—Brenda Chapman, Alexis McGovern, Sarah Lee Circlebet, Raenette Turner, Wakquina Jones, and Joyce Kernell. So many of our children are gone, but they are not forgotten. They are here with Hillary Clinton tonight. She is the leader and a mother who will say…our children's names. What a blessing to be standing here tonight so that Sandy can still speak through her momma."
For all the pretty speeches, the profound witness of these women remains HRC's most powerful bona fides, and it would be wrong to underestimate what a risk it was to bring them all onto the stage tonight to discuss their lost children. The backlash against police violence, and against the Black Lives Matter movement, is both strong and easily directed, especially since the unconscionable killing of law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge and in Dallas.
All Lives Matter is the great dodge. Blue Lives Matter is the tip of the sword. But these women have not wavered. Their testimony is inviolate.
"You don't stop being a parent just because your child dies," said Lucia McBath, whose son was blown away for playing music too loudly for the guy in the car next to his. "I am still Jordan Davis' mother. Here's what you don't know about my son. When he was little, he wouldn't eat a popsicle unless he had enough to bring out to his friends. I lived in fear that my son would die like this. I even warned him that because he was a young black man, he would meet people who didn't value him or his life. That is a conversation that no parent ever should have with their child.
"Hillary Clinton is not afraid to say Black Lives Matter. She isn't afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesn't build walls around her heart. Not only did she listen to our problems, she invited us to become part of the solution. We're going to keep telling our children's stories, and we're going to keep telling you to say their names. We're going to keep moving forward and working with the community and with police to build a community to keep children like Jordan safe."
Oddly enough, none of these women mentioned the TPP. Not one of them brought up globalization or why the exit polls didn't quite match up with the results in New Hampshire. They spoke only of their own experience of loss and faith, and their own experiences with HRC. They were the direct descendants of Fannie Lou Hamer, who walked out of a Democratic convention for real because a legitimately corrupt and vicious system was coming apart and she was giving it one last push to topple it for good.
The line from Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2016 ended at the feet of these seven women, and it goes on past them. They are the American equivalent of the Mothers of the Missing in Argentina, walking the plaza, day after day, bearing sorrow, bearing witness.
"I am an unwilling participant in this movement," said Sabryna Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by George Zimmerman. "I wouldn't have signed up for this movement for anything. I am here for my son, Trayvon Martin, who is in heaven. I did not want this spotlight but I will do everything I can to focus some of this light on the pain of a path out of the darkness. Hillary Clinton has the compassion and understanding to support grieving mothers. She has the courage to fight for common sense gun legislation. She has a plan to bridge the divide that so often exists between police departments and the communities they serve. This isn't about being politically correct. This is about saving our children."
You can argue with HRC all you want but, in doing so, you have to argue with these women, too, and with their testimony. When they spoke, all the speeches disappeared, all the revolutionary posturing vanished like so much smoke. All the fear that was mongered last week in Cleveland now seemed like the sub-verbal mutterings of a primitive tribe.
This was the real thing. This was the human cost of bad policies. These are lives that matter so very much.
This post has been updated to reflect that Dallas was the city where police officers were killed.
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Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
