When 26-year-old ( his birthday was 4 days previous ) Anthony Huber woke up next to his girlfriend Hannah Gittings that morning of August 25th, 2020, how would he have known that it would be his last day on earth?
It wasn’t on his mind.
The breakfast he shared with Hannah and her four-year-old daughter was just another breakfast.
No need to really taste it….. i mean after all, they’ll be another one tomorrow.
And the sunrise, and sunset was just another sunrise and sunset.
No need to really see it……. i mean after all, they’ll be another one tomorrow.
Unless you are in a war zone, few that are not afflicted with a fatal illness think that they truly might die that day.
I have had the occasion of not knowing if i would be alive that time tomorrow, so i did what many in a similar circumstance do…. i wrote half a dozen letters to loved ones, the longest one to my mother, i prayed to God for forgiveness and pleaded for understanding.
I amended my will, with further clarifications.
I had the coming foresight, knowledge and fear.
But Anthony didn’t have any of that in his mindset.
After all, this was Kenosha…. not Soweto or Mogadishu or Rafah or Kampala or Kurdistan.
On that day, fascists and racists were coming to his hometown, the place that he was born and raised.
Many of them would travel from out-of-state, to intentionally cause violence, mayhem and destruction.
And they would come heavily armed.
Black Lives Matter was there for a protest and demonstration.
The murder of George Floyd was the catalyst, but in the hearts of the protestors and on their lips were the names of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and many many more murdered by the instruments of racial injustice.
And Kenosha’s own Jacob Blake…..shot how many times by local police in the back?...and who was left paralyzed.
There was outrage.
Anthony was a committed Black Lives Matter activist.
And he was a friend of Jacob Blake.
You bet that he was going to be there to protest.
His parents would watch Hannah’s daughter and their dog.
They knew parking would be tough in the area, so he got on his regular form of transportation, his skateboard, with Hannah on hers.
As a young man, Anthony struggled with mental health issues and drug dependency.
And seven years ago, he quit cold turkey and never relapsed.
He went to counseling for a few years, but he regarded two things as his savior…..his skateboarding community and his activism.
Any marginalized group in his community, be it those of color, those from the LGBTQ+ community, Jews ( he was Jewish himself ), Muslims, First Nations peoples….. if you were oppressed, you had a friend, advocate and defender in Anthony.
He was there for you.
Before he got clean, and committed himself to help those really going through it, by being an advocate for human rights, he went to jail, and more than once.
As many addicts do.
And he had anger issues, as many young people in this place and space do.
To that, i remember the words of another defender of the oppressed.
Who also was in and out of jail…. until he too saw the light, and followed a calling.
A different kind of patriotism.
A patriotism to human rights.
A patriotism to life….instead of death.
We know what happened next.
A swaggering and threatening Kyle was confronted by Joseph Rosenbaum, who tried to grab the assault rifle.
Kyle shot the unarmed man…..four times.
Joseph was dead and bleeding- out in the middle of the road.
And then, with his AR-15 still aimed at the crowd, he retreated.
He was still an active shooter who just murdered a man, and most of the crowd themselves hid or retreated.
Yet a few still advanced on Kyle.
Those included Anthony, Hannah and Gaige Grosskreutz, who was a trained medic, and was there to care for those protestors who were injured by racist thugs, or those thugs who wore blue uniforms.
We know Kyle tripped on his own feet, and shot Gaige in his arm, then upraised above his head, obliterating his bicep.
The shooter was now firing indiscriminately, and bullets and shrapnel were scattering perilously close to crowds of unarmed civilians.
That infuriated Anthony, and he directed Hannah to get out of there and hide, and that he would be careful but he had to try and stop this madman from hurting or killing anymore brothers and sisters.
"He pushed me out of the way and ran off. I tried to grab him," said Hannah.
Anthony raised his skateboard and struck the armed man.
And as he went for a second blow, he was shot in the upper chest, and he too also died in the middle of the road.
Hannah was over his body in seconds, disbelieving and mourning.
What kind of person advances on and tries to disarm a madman who has already killed unarmed civilians with a weapon of war?
I have seen this play out all over the globe, in locales of great violence.
I have seen both women and men do this.
I saw the recent aftermath of a young woman and mother of two detonate a grenade she was holding to kill those advancing on her friends and comrades.
You never know what sacrifice you are willing to make until the time comes…..the rest is just talk, bravado and wishful thinking.
Or a great underestimation of your own courage and heart.
Anthony never thought he would be killed that day.
Death is an abstraction for most young people.
But he did indeed die that day, and he died trying to save the lives of both friends and strangers.
Without hesitation, and without a second thought.
And in my world, in my book, we have two words for that, depending on your point of view and what part of the world you were raised.
One of those words is ‘martyr’.
And the other word is ‘hero’.
In a statement that Anthony’s parents, Karen Bloom and John Huber ( imagine the phone call they received that evening ), made after the verdict, it ended with this passage.
Surrounded by Anthony’s six siblings.
“We are so proud of Anthony, and we love him so much. He is a hero who sacrificed his own life to protect other innocent civilians. We ask that you remember Anthony and keep him in your prayers."
I also ask that you remember Anthony and keep him in your prayers.
And Joseph.
And Gaige.
And those who knew and loved them.
They weren’t saints.
In my experience…… heroes and martyrs seldom are.
On their social media feeds, i found these two songs posted by the deceased.
It tells you all you need to know, about those with such expansive hearts.
About those who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
‘Love is the higher law
Sisters
Brothers
We get to carry each other
Carry each other’
‘Society, have mercy on me
I hope you’re not lonely without me.’
And this, also on his social media feed.
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