Keaton Farris, wearing the same uniform many of your sons will this fall.
There are two sides to everything, and the men and women who work at the Island County Jail are good people.
I have no doubt of that.
But a young man who wore a Wolf uniform like many of your children do, who practiced on the same track your children do, who played on the same football field your sons do, died in a jail cell that we drive or walk past every day.
He was troubled, he was mentally ill, he was not perfect, he brought much upon himself.
He was also a devoted brother to his little sisters, a young man in which promise and despair fought, who could have found a second chance.
He did not have to die.
Today’s show of solidarity for Keaton Farris starts next to the Coupeville Library (788 Alexander) and at 10 AM all gathered will march the short distance to the jail.
If you come, you are asked to wear a black t-shirt. Water bottles with Keaton’s face on it will be handed out.
We are not a town ripped through with corruption. We are not a town where the police are trying to kill our civilians.
But we are a town where a young man, one of us, died, and died in a way that to almost any reasonable person, seems preventable.
They march today in the hope that no one else dies. That another family doesn’t have to bury their child.
Changes need to be made. Care has to be taken.
I have serious issues with crowds, but I will be there. Because, if I sit at my house a mile or two away and don’t, I become part of the problem.
Things only change when people stand up and say, “No, this is not right. This can not and will not happen again.”
I hope you are there, too.
Coupeville Sports 