By CHICO ALENCAR*

This Saturday I will say that in the city there is still humanity

This Saturday I will, with muit@s, say that there is still Humanity in the city.

Facing the ocean, we will remember the millions who were forced to cross it, encountering illness and death on the way. And, here, survivors, “ring, iron, whip and stick” – the unjust law of the imperial crown.

We will throw our sorrows for diasporas and holocausts, which insist on not ceasing, in the deep waters of the sea. On the white sands of the beach, we will still see traces of the blood of the atrocity, of the beating: our continued torment.

In front of the kiosk, which should have been a space for fraternization and joy, we will repeat that Tropicália does not rhyme with barbarism. And that the dark and cruel mantle of truculence will not cover the light of day once and for all.

We will raise up — Symbolically, for now; in concrete, art and steel, then – a tombstone, a landmark, a monument: here, where human life was brutalized, the people of Rio repudiate all torture and stupid behavior. Welcomed to heal the incurable wound.

We will not normalize prejudice, racism, hatred, weaponry, violence!

This Saturday, February 5th, we are all Moïse, Durval Teófilo (murdered for “looking like a bandit”!!!) and tant@s – Evaldo Rosa, Kathlen Romeu, the children of Belford Roxo, the girls of Glória do Goitá, hundreds, thousands – whose right to live has been and is being taken away on a daily basis. It's not natural, even more so with official support!

Only by organizing our indignation will we defeat this “(evil) militia spirit”. Only united and mobilized will we sweep away oppression from the world.

It's this Saturday and always, in Rio and in many cities in sick Brazil. It is hope and reason: in yours, in mine, in our hurt, but still beating heart. Horror will not prevail.

* Chico Alencar he is a history teacher, writer and councilor for Psol in the City Council of Rio de Janeiro.