In a just world, I wouldn't be sending this email, friend.

In a just world, May 25 would be just another day on a calendar instead of a day marked by brutality, senselessness and death – a day where sons and daughters lost their father as he cried out to his mother in heaven in his final moments on earth. 

George Floyd. Say his name, friend. George Floyd's life mattered. Black lives matter. 

But one year ago today, George Floyd was robbed of his life, and for nearly 10 appalling minutes, the world watched in horror as the knee of a police officer pressed down on the neck of a Black man as he cried out, "I can't breathe." Echoes of I can't breathe rightfully haunted us, friend – and galvanized a movement.

The whole world shook. A nation was reawakened – questioning its very conscience, battling for its very soul: From Minneapolis to America's largest cities and tight-knit communities, the people took to the streets. We marched. We kneeled. We prayed. We held each other in moments of silence and spoke out in solidarity – remembering, perhaps, the words of a great leader who warned us not about "the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." He too was robbed of justice.

Friend, George Floyd should be alive today. The bare minimum of accountability was upheld when the disgraced former police officer who took George's life was found guilty. The real work comes now. We must harness everything we've experienced, felt, learned this past year and resolve around a shared purpose: Don't let up, do better and fight with that same sense of urgency we felt one year ago today.

For our leaders in Congress, that means passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. It's not the solution, but it's a start – and the Senate must quit with their delays and pass this important piece of legislation. But racism is still the ghost in the room, friend. We have a long way to go. But as the Black girl who grew up poor in the South, who felt the sting of racism up close and personal, I have some hope. I have hope that if we resolve to be better, we can do better. You have my word that's what I'm committed to, every single day.

My prayers, and my whole heart, are with the Floyd family today and everyone who marched or protested in the wake of his death. Our nation is not complete – and George's memory is not fully honored – until America is truly a country of liberty and justice for all.

In solidarity,

Congresswoman Val Demings