George Floyd memorial can't wait

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Living a mile from George Floyd Square, I've spent many hours at that intersection over the past three years, mourning, protesting, praying, talking, listening, learning. I'm sad but not surprised to learn that Minneapolis city officials expect another three years to pass before a permanent memorial of George Floyd's murder will finally be built.

On one hand, I'm irritated. The street corner where the 46-year-old Black man died under Officer Derek Chauvin's knee on Memorial Day 2020 looks shabby and combative these days. Crowds have dispersed, murals faded and the makeshift shrine of stuffed animals, notes, candles and plastic flowers does little to educate, challenge or inspire. Empty storefronts give visitors few reasons to stick around. George Floyd, local businesses, neighbors, visitors and the city deserve better.

On the other hand, I recognize that determining how to memorialize the most shameful parts of history is never easy. There are multiple constituencies, diverse visions and a generous supply of controversy.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but seven years passed before Maya Lin's black granite wall was installed and engraved with the names of 58,390 servicemen and women who died in that divisive war. Berlin's powerful Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was inaugurated in May 2005, 60 years after World War II ended in Europe. Both monuments, once controversial, are now places for pilgrimage and reflection.

Designing a plan for George Floyd Square will require thoughtful, wide-ranging consultation, but that shouldn't be an excuse for stalemate or indecision. Memorials like those in Washington and Berlin are important. They can help us learn, reflect and heal from the most painful parts of our history. As civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson, the force behind the lynching memorial in Montgomery, Ala., notes: "Monuments create an opportunity for communities to begin a process of recovery, of reconciliation, of restoration." All of which Minneapolis badly needs.

In the meantime, there's work to be done to preserve and enhance the most powerful memorials that have grown up around 38th and Chicago. Shortly after Floyd's murder, on a nearby scrap of unused parkland, two art students from Philadelphia installed more than 100 plastic board tombstones bearing the names of Black Americans who died at the hands of police.

The students intended for Say Their Names Cemetery to be temporary, but three years later, it remains as a solemn, weatherworn memorial to familiar tragedies. Michael Brown shot on the street in Ferguson, Mo.; Breonna Taylor shot in bed in Louisville; 12-year-old Tamir Rice killed while playing with a toy gun in Cleveland.

It's time, with the creators' help, to install permanent tombstones and more context, including that the rate of fatal police killings of Black Americans is two and a half times higher than that of whites.

With signage, QR codes or other means, more should be done to educate visitors about the significance of what happened at that intersection. George Floyd's slow-motion murder and Darnella Frazier's cellphone video. Worldwide protests and Lake Street burning. Derek Chauvin's murder conviction and the hard, ongoing work of ending what the U.S. Justice Department found to be a routine pattern of racist and abusive behavior among Minneapolis police.

Delaying any work on George Floyd Square for another three years means missing countless opportunities to educate and challenge visitors and to help our city recover.

The greatest risk is forgetting the horror of Floyd's murder, the fear and grief we felt, and to lessen our resolve to create a public safety system that does not discriminate by race or income, that turns less to violence and treats every resident with respect.

The forgetting is already underway. This year, Florida state officials removed mention of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter from the state's textbooks.

Lynda McDonnell is a Minneapolis writer.