I have been a victim of crime and people that I know including my brother-in-law, nephew and a friend, who was a police officer, were all killed by criminals. Everyone hates crime and believe criminals should be punished including me. To some degree, people can be on the lookout and protect themselves from criminals.
When a police officer commits a crime against me, my options are limited. If I fight back, I will be beaten or killed and the officer will most likely suffer no consequences, even if a video exists. No one is supposed to be above the law, but it's foolish to believe that. Police officers get away with crimes that would send ordinary people to jail for years. The Black Lives Matter Movement has been purposefully misrepresented by white media and politicians to portray it as some sort of racist ideology.
Below is a video of Madison, Wisconsin police punching, kicking and tasing a defenseless 18 year old girl (woman) which is the latest example of why the Black Lives Matter Movement is important and why black people shouldn't be deceived into thinking just because black criminals are committing crimes, that somehow makes it unimportant that police treat black people horribly on a regular basis in this country.
Had this simply been a common criminal, people would have certainly come to this girl's aid. However, because it was the police people felt powerless to do anything but to document and video what was going on. Had anyone shooting video gotten involved they would have most likely received even worse treatment and possibly killed. They wouldn't have been able to argue police brutality, self-defense or the protection of others because they would have been charged with "interfering with official police business".
Allegedly, this woman had a knife earlier, even if that was true, there is no excuse for what is shown on the video. This woman was obviously no danger to the two larger police officers manhandling her. This woman was basically tortured.
These type of incidents have to stop. I am sickened each time I see one of these videos and sickened, even more, when I hear that the officers involved were not arrested, charged or convicted of any crime. Imagine how many of these incidents are never captured on video, which is why police body cameras are needed.
Obviously, there are many innocent victims of crime and some of those innocent victims are killed. However, many of the killings happen because the victim was engaged in illegal or illicit activity and some are retaliation or revenge killings. Criminals, when caught, get arrested, charged with crimes, go a trial and to jail if convicted.
If my life is put in danger by a criminal, I have the option and right to defend myself including deadly force if necessary. But what about when the criminal is a police officer? You have not rights! Even when police officers abuse helpless black teenagers in bikinis at a pool party, there still is no justice. This needs to change now!
Byron Mischauex, the grandfather of Jirah Campbell, a teenager who was fatally shot in Pine Lawn, spoke with KMOV about the violence and Black Lives Matter. I agree with Mr. Mischauex that we as a community must fix our problems, but at the same time, we must realize that our issues are symptoms of much broader issues. However, that realization is of little comfort to the family of Jirah Campbell and all the other families that have experienced the death of a loved one from violence. Until we understand those racist institutions including policing, courts, banks, and even government plays a part of the black community's plight nationally, black people as a whole will continue to suffer.
When a person is unfairly targeted by police the way Mr. Mischauex described, they can be thrust into a domino effect of misfortune. Innocent people get arrested, which often result in losing their job, losing a car, home, or other possessions. To add insult to injury, that arrest record makes it harder to find another job.
Fortunately, Mr. Mischauex was a business owner and had the resources to get through. Many others are not as fortunate. Factor in decades of criminalizing drugs and other behaviors and predatory court practices it's easy to understand why black communities all across the country have suffered. Many people in the black community become distraught and black teens often feel hopeless and result to crime because the feel they have nothing to loss. Those currently with decent jobs don't seem to understand that the next economic downturn could cause them to become targets and face similar issues.
Record any incident of police misconduct that you see. If the police mistreat you in any way, report the officers involved so those offending police officers will accumulate complaints that are representative of their abuse.
Over the past few weeks, I had been approached by many people all with the same question: Who will I endorse for President of the United States? I have heard this even more since the launch of the Justice For Tamir Speak Out Tour. I have watched as my fellow mothers that have lost children have chosen a candidate to invest their faith in and I support them in their pursuits of justice for their children, and the people want to know where I stand.
For over a year I have been fighting for justice for my son, Tamir , who was killed by Cleveland police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback. For over a year, I’ve waited to see if any candidate or official, including my state’s governor, would release a plan of action that addressed the failures and inhumane decisions responsible for my son’s death. While I’ve waited, I’ve been speaking out for true action, with changes that would help prevent another tragedy like Tamir’s murder, changes that truly hold these police accountable and give people power in the communities we live in.
As a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, my local and state governments have not only failed my family, they’ve caused us severe trauma. After shooting Tamir, Cleveland police neglected to call aid for my son and handcuffed my daughter, who was trying help her brother. Then the city of Cleveland later tried to charge me for the ambulance ride that was too late to save my son’s life. They said it was a mistake, and no one was held responsible for any of pain they caused my family.
After Tamir’s death, the county prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, an elected official, responsible for seeking justice for Tamir, instead blamed my 12 year old boy for his own death.
All of this happened under the administration of Ohio governor, John Kasich, a 2016 presidential nominee. Ohio’s state government has shown me repeatedly that the people elected to serve have no interest in justice. The loss of Tamir has made it clear to me that Cleveland is deeply invested in a system of injustice. No one has been held responsible for any part of this entire traumatic experience. No one has at least apologized for killing my son. Not a single politician has offered me some substantial support.
While I’ve continued to push my state’s officials towards real changes, several Presidential candidates have said my son’s name in their mouth, using his death as an example of what shouldn’t happen in America. Twelve year old children should never be murdered for playing in a park. But not a single politician: local, state or federal, has taken action to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Instead of plans for justice and accountability, I have been shown several plans for criminal justice reform, none that address my experience of the entire system being guilty. Those plans don’t address the many ways elected officials become exempt to accountability and the legal flaws that allow them to extend that exemption to cops who kill. These plans do not get rid of the trauma of knowing that my tax dollars help pay the salaries of the police officers that killed my son.
As one of the Mothers of the Movement, I know the death of Tamir has shown many just how important police accountability is. I also know it must be a piece of a larger plan to address the deep corruptions that exist in America. The people should be the ones determining what accountability looks like, not prosecutors who work closely with police to deny the people justice. County Prosecutors whose job requires them to believe the police the majority of the time, should not be the same people prosecuting them. Police officers often lie about fearing for their life.
True community oversight of the police is one that evens the balance of power and allows the communities police serve to judge how well they are doing their job. My experience has let me know that the system is working just the way the people in power want it to. That is why I refuse to accept plans or support politicians that offer what they propose as solutions, not informed by us, the community. It’s why I won’t accept plans for more “community police” as positive solutions when it was the police that killed my son. I cannot settle for partial solutions and lip service. I know we need real action, and I refuse to endorse any candidate that offers less.
The City of St. Louis has been in decline and denial for quite some time. If we don't make some changes, we soon may no longer be considered a world class city.
Even if you don't consider St. Louis to be a world class city, with the exception of a subway, you must admit that St. Louis has many of the things that make cities world class.
World class cities are also known for their modern skylines, locations that cater to wealthy locals and affluent visitors and an absence of visible signs of poverty. St. Louis fails the visibility of poverty test.
City leaders pursue this “world-class” vision to attract investment, for integration into the global economy, and to improve the quality of living standards. Too often, however, those benefits accrue only to the wealthiest and most powerful residents.
St. Louis is a city that seems aggressive and inhospitable to some of it's minority and low income residents and many would flee if offered half a chance to relocate elsewhere. St. Louis is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country and even before the Ferguson Protest had a racist reputation.
Many people don't realize or have forgotten that Missouri typically is categorized as both a Midwestern and a southern state. The region was split on Union and Confederate issues during the Civil War. A small region of the state is called Little Dixie for the influx of southerners that settled there.
"Though slavery is thought, by some, to be mild in Missouri, when compared with the cotton, sugar and rice growing states, yet no part of our slave-holding country is more noted for the barbarity of its inhabitants than St. Louis."
During the decades after the Civil War, St. Louis grew to become the nation's fourth largest city, after New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. It also experienced rapid infrastructure and transportation development and the growth of heavy industry.
The period culminated with the 1904 World's Fair and Summer Olympics, which were held concurrently in St. Louis. As of 2014, St. Louis has dropped to 60 on the U.S. Census largest cities list. New York is still number one, Chicago is the still number three and Philadelphia dropped only slightly to number five.
The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members. This is not a new concept, it has existed at least since biblical times; "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me" – Matthew 25:40.
The Ram's departure leaves a huge pile of unpaid debt on the old dome stadium. According to the the St. Louis Post, the city said it expected to lose about $4.2 million a year, at least in the “short run,” as tax revenue falls because of the team’s departure. The Riverfront Stadium Task Force has spent $16 million so far on planning for a new stadium.
While the City was actively offering welfare to a billionaire and spending millions in taxpayer money putting together a stadium plan for Stan Kroenke, the Ram's owner, who neither asked for it nor wanted it; they were vigorously fighting to close down a homeless shelter that actually provides services and cares for "the least of these."
I'm only fifty years old, but while I was growing up, it was common knowledge that you didn't go into certain neighborhoods. I was in high school between 1979 and 1983. During that time, there were not a lot of places that welcomed black kids. On the weekends, many of us hung out in Forest Park, but then the rules were changed and we were forced out. Another popular hangout was the St. Louis Riverfront, which then had the nation's only floating McDonald's; but again the rules were changed and eventually the McDonald's Boat located to another city.
I see that same pattern repeated again, mall and other areas now have special curfews and other restrictions that often seem to be enforced more rigorously against black kids.
Surprisingly with institutions such as St. Louis University, Washington University, UMSL, Harris-Stowe University, St. Louis Community Colleges, Rankin Technical College, Webster University, Fontbonne University, Missouri Baptist University, St. Louis area is home to many poorly performing public schools.
How is it possible, with the number of institutions of higher learning in and around St. Louis, that our schools are not among the best in the country? In a word, exclusion.
Whether there was a concerted efforts such as those proposed by the Team Four Plan or unconscious bias, educational, economic and employment opportunities have routinely been suppressed and restricted in certain areas. Around the neighborhood where I live, street lights and traffic lights including the intersections of MLK at Sarah and MLK at Euclid have been non-functioning for years. It is now common knowledge that even our court system has been guilty of predatory practices targeting people of color.
Decreased educational, economic and other opportunities lead to oppression and exacerbate inequality. Oppression and inequality leads to crime, which eventually visits the oppressor. The communities of both the oppressed and oppressor are negatively affected. Outsiders see this, often more clearly than we do.
Our airport is no longer a hub for any major airline, companies have specifically told us they won't locate to St. Louis because our schools are below par, we don't stack up against other cities, decades ago we lost our basketball team (The Hawks) to Atlanta and we have now lost two football teams. To add insult to injury, the Rams are returning to the city they previously left to come to St. Louis.
For decades, the St. Louis region neglected or excluded certain groups of people and for a while, other groups benefited. However, as was noted in an earlier post, what you quietly allow to happen to others, will eventually find its way back to you.
When you allow the oppression of a group of people, it opens the door for oppression of additional groups. The education of blacks was neglected, now the education of all Americans lag behind compared to the rest of the world. Drug users were vilified and criminalized when they were mostly black or brown, but whites are now the largest growing group of drug addicts.
The economy of blacks was artificially suppressed for decades, now manufacturing and other high paying mostly white jobs are being sent overseas. The Congress has already pass legislation that will reduce some union pension by more than half and the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to deal unions a major setback again effecting mostly white workers.
As mentioned in the post, first they came, if you want to improve your own conditions, don't let the rights and privileges of others get abused. Even President Obama mentioned this during his last State of the Union speech last night. Hopefully St. Louis will finally heed this message and begin to help those truly in need rather than those truly in greed.
Welfare for millionaires and billionaires look ridiculous when the St. Louis area is experiencing record-setting flooding and the need for assistance is great.
Thousands of people in and around the St. Louis area will be affected by flooding. Many will lose their possessions and homes, others will be out of work and some businesses may closed down completely unable to reopen.
Public dollars should be reserved for public need! This is when public tax dollars are most needed, in emergency and catastrophic situations. However, since so much public money is tied up in pledges to private projects of millionaires and billionaires, many of those truly in need will find scarce resources available to them.
Levees are in danger of failing and I suspect some of them have not received the attention and allocation of public money they should have received because we were more concerned about providing subsidies to the rich.
To add insult to injury, the proposed stadium would be located even closer to the river, adding to future flood damages that will have to be paid for by tax payers.
Flooding affected almost every major artery into St. Louis; highways 44, 55 and 70 have been partially closed because of flooding. Even before flooding, MoDot had already expressed they didn't have the necessary funding to do required maintenance and repairs. Major roadways and highways will certainly be damaged by flood water adding additional repairs to MoDot's strained budget. See: List of area roads closed due to high water
As I've stated previously, paying hundreds of millions of dollars for private projects for the rich do not make sense. Some ordinary hard-working people will lose everything they own and unfortunately many of them will discover that there are no available public funds to assist them; because we have committed so much to make certain that wealthy sport franchise owners get their share of public money through a reverse Robin Hood tax scheme.
I wonder if the governor, legislators and aldermen who fought so hard for stadium financing will fight as hard to find public money to assist those the ordinary people, that elected them into office, who are affected by the flood.
I suspect that low-interest loans that must be paid back will be available, but many flood victims will not receive the same sort of non-repayable subsidies that is proposed to be given to the wealthy.
Below is video of the December 18, 2015 Board of Aldermen session that voted 17 to 10 to approve stadium financing. The actual vote process begins at 2:16:50 in the timeline. See how your alderperson voted.
The law making body of the City of St. Louis is the Board of Aldermen. There are twenty-eight aldermen, one from each ward in the City and a President. The Board of Aldermen meet every Friday except during summer recess and on holidays. At these sessions, the Aldermen present the First Readings of a resolutionor new board bill and discuss issues raised in these pending bills.
On December 10th, in reaction to proposed stadium financing, St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Green made the following statement:
“The deal cutting, bribery, and [corruption] at City Hall will never cease to amaze me", she later referred to the situation as “legalized bribery,” and stated, “And just because something is legal in MO doesn’t mean it’s ethical”.
I was not very familiar with Megan Green, so I did some light research; including searching news reports about her, reading her personal website, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter accounts. Some news articles about Ms. Green are listed below:
Below is a video of her explaining her background, last year, when she was a running for office.
Below is another video of Ms. Green responding last year to crime and the Ferguson protests.
My research didn't reveal any thing I could cite as negative. Megan Green appears to be intelligent, committed and open minded. So far, I like what I see and Ms. Green seems sincere and genuine.
The Post article mentions that neither the St. Louis Police or FBI have substantiated the allegations. Unsubstantiated allegations do not mean that corruption did not occur. One of the primary reason for the existence of Court.rchp.com is St. Louis' Culture of Corruption.
Reed reportedly stated, "She clearly has lied about this," …. "Something needs to happen. The board, universally, is really upset about it". However, without proof that she lied, statements about her lying are equally unsubstantiated. The irony is that Lewis Reed endorsed Megan Green during her candidacy.
Is it really unreasonable to believe that corruption surrounds a billion dollar project? Unless this alderwoman has a history of lying; which I find no evidence of, I see no reason not to take her at her word.
I don't personally know Mr. Reed, he seems to have integrity and I have mostly liked what I have seen and heard about him publicly and I have voted for him in the past. Although, he may honestly believe everything is being done ethically and legally, I'm not ready to totally dismiss Ms. Green's statements.
Corruption may not always be obvious and can come in many forms including:
Outright monetary bribes
Campaign financial support
Employment opportunities
Travel or other perks
Book deals with large advances
Hugh public speaking fees
Appointment to higher office or corporate boards
The list could go on and on
Maybe I'm biased, I don't believe it is smart or in the public interest to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of public money on a private stadium, especially when a perfectly good stadium already exists. St. Louis has infrastructure in disrepair, crime, homelessness, and variety of other issues public money would be better be spent on.
A husband and wife couple, who happened to be Muslim, killed 14 people and wound 22 during a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015, the deadliest such tragedy in three years.
Donald Trump has suggested banning Muslims from our country by spewing vicious propaganda in reaction to the shooting tragedy. Surprisingly 25% of surveyed Americans and 38% of GOP primary voters agree with him. Trump's rhetoric and ideology is reminiscent of "slavery back in effect".
One of this country's founding principles is freedom of religion, which is enshrined in the first amendment. Even if you dismiss that principal, the logic of Trump's proposal and those that agree with him is flawed.
Are all white people the same? Are all black people the same? Are all Christians the same? Are all Muslims the same?
The answer to all of those questions is NO!
People are individuals with individual characteristics. Even my two sons who live within the same household, raised by the same parents are as different as night and day. One is religious, the other not so much, one is athletic, the other not so much, one is small the other large, one is very social and outgoing, the other more reserved and quiet, one is silly the other one more serious and the list could go on and on. Of course, as I have mentioned before, they also have many similar traits such as intelligence, kindness, likability, being respectful, love of music, travel, family and friends and again the list could go on and on.
As of December 2nd, 353 mass shootings have killed 462 and wounded 1,317 people in 220 cities, according to the website shootingtracker.com. The majority of the shooters were Young White Christian Males rather than Muslim.
However, no one would dare suggest banning Christians or even profiling young White males. White privilege prevents most people from even considering the profiling of white males. But as soon as the perpetrator is someone other than White, the discussion changes and stereotypes and prejudices are introduced.
Whenever I hear a person make racist or derogatory statements against a whole group of people based on stereotypes, I realize that person probably expresses similar sentiments about the group I belong too. A person making generalized negative comments to me about one group is probably making negative comments about my group to others.
As expressed in an earlier post, "First They Came", once we allow the unreasonable exclusion or discrimination of one group, it makes it much more easier to discriminate against the next group. Eventually, the discrimination may reach you or one of your family members or friends. And if you don't speak up for others, you can't expect others to speak up for you.
As I watched the August 6, 2015, episode of DonnyBrook, the phrase, "white middle-class fatigue" was mentioned at about 2:30 in the timeline. Evidently, many people are tired of hearing about injustices, discrimination, and oppression endured by people of color. A quote by Barbara Smith – "For those of you who are tired of hearing about racism, imagine how much more tired we are constantly experiencing it", which summarizes how I felt when I heard the then unfamiliar phrase, white middle-class fatigue.
It's foolish to let your oppressor tell you that you should forget about the oppression that they inflicted upon you. I am not indicting people for the sins or acts of their ancestors, but many people today benefit from those sins. Land that was stolen and wealth that was accumulated was passed down and provided advantages to succeeding generations of European Americans; while decimating native, enslaved and oppressed populations. See The Unequal Opportunity Race.
I assume white middle-class fatigue is one of the contributing factors why comments from Donald Trump stating he doesn't have the time to be politically correct resonates with so many people. White privilege allows Trump to make statements such as, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.….They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Many of the Mexicans crossing the borders are actually crossing land that had previous been stolen by the U.S. during the Mexican Session of 1848.
So when Trump calls Mexicans crossing the border are mostly criminals, he should take a closer look at U.S. history and consider one of history's greatest land thefts of First Nation Peoples. This country was built on the theft of human lives, resources, and land. The success that our country enjoys today is based upon that theft. Trump's statements reminded me of an ad campaign about discrimination of another people native to their land which was stolen by new settlers. The subject of the ad campaign was discrimination of Australia's indigenous population, however, the theme could just as easily be applied to any group that is discriminated against.
Political correctness is a term used to criticize language, actions, or policies seen as being excessively calculated to not offend or disadvantage any particular group of people in society. When objectionable language is directed toward you, it is considered offensive, but when it's directed toward others, I guess that's when it's considered an issue of political correctness.
Many people seem to think that the past has no effect upon the present or the future. The past is foundational and effects people and communities just as the quality of a building's foundation effects how well it endures over time. If a person's grandfather was relatively well off, not rich, but firmly part of the middle class, he most likely provided a decent education for his son and the son stood a good chance of going to college. That son would then most likely surpass his father in economic status and the grandchild would possibly get an even better education than both the parent and grandparent. In addition, when the grandparents and parents die, their accumulation of property passes down, enriching the grandson even more. Multiply this by 350 years of slavery, then by another 90 years of Jim Crow plus factor in the destruction of black wealth and discriminatory legislation and it's easy to see how white families are worth 20 times that of black families. A cartoon, "The Unequal Opportunity Race" does an excellent job of expressing this point.
Dr. Claud Anderson discusses the sentiments expressed by The Unequal Opportunity Race cartoon in his lecture, The Truth About Slavery.
It's unfortunate that when people who have been oppressed both socially and within statutory codes of law, that others feel fatigue by their efforts to secure better circumstances for themselves.
President Obama gave a remarkable eulogy which honored not only Pastor Pinchney, but the other eight killed along side him in his church. President touches on gun violence, history and many of the important issues of the day.
President Obama delivered the following eulogy at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney at the College of Charleston’s campus.
OBAMA: Giving all praise and honor to God.
(APPLAUSE)
The Bible calls us to hope, to persevere and have faith in things not seen. They were still living by faith when they died, the scripture tells us.
(APPLAUSE)
They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith, a man who believed in things not seen, a man who believed there were better days ahead off in the distance, a man of service, who persevered knowing full-well he would not receive all those things he was promised, because he believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed, to Jennifer, his beloved wife, Eliana and Malana, his beautiful, wonderful daughters, to the Mother Emanuel family and the people of Charleston, the people of South Carolina.
I cannot claim to have had the good fortune to know Reverend Pinckney well, but I did have the pleasure of knowing him and meeting him here in South Carolina back when we were both a little bit younger…
(LAUGHTER)
… back when I didn’t have visible gray hair.
(LAUGHTER)
The first thing I noticed was his graciousness, his smile, his reassuring baritone, his deceptive sense of humor, all qualities that helped him wear so effortlessly a heavy burden of expectation.
Friends of his remarked this week that when Clementa Pinckney entered a room, it was like the future arrived, that even from a young age, folks knew he was special, anointed. He was the progeny of a long line of the faithful, a family of preachers who spread God’s words, a family of protesters who so changed to expand voting rights and desegregate the South.
Clem heard their instruction, and he did not forsake their teaching. He was in the pulpit by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. He did not exhibit any of the cockiness of youth nor youth’s insecurities. Instead, he set an example worthy of his position, wise beyond his years in his speech, in his conduct, in his love, faith and purity.
As a senator, he represented a sprawling swathe of low country, a place that has long been one of the most neglected in America, a place still racked by poverty and inadequate schools, a place where children can still go hungry and the sick can go without treatment — a place that needed somebody like Clem.
(APPLAUSE)
His position in the minority party meant the odds of winning more resources for his constituents were often long. His calls for greater equity were too-often unheeded. The votes he cast were sometimes lonely.
But he never gave up. He stayed true to his convictions. He would not grow discouraged. After a full day at the Capitol, he’d climb into his car and head to the church to draw sustenance from his family, from his ministry, from the community that loved and needed him. There, he would fortify his faith and imagine what might be.
Reverend Pinckney embodied a politics that was neither mean nor small. He conducted himself quietly and kindly and diligently. He encouraged progress not by pushing his ideas alone but by seeking out your ideas, partnering with you to make things happen. He was full of empathy and fellow feeling, able to walk in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes.
No wonder one of his Senate colleagues remembered Senator Pinckney as “the most gentle of the 46 of us, the best of the 46 of us.”
Clem was often asked why he chose to be a pastor and a public servant. But the person who asked probably didn’t know the history of AME Church.
(APPLAUSE)
As our brothers and sisters in the AME Church, we don’t make those distinctions. “Our calling,” Clem once said, “is not just within the walls of the congregation but the life and community in which our congregation resides.”
(APPLAUSE)
He embodied the idea that our Christian faith demands deeds and not just words, that the sweet hour of prayer actually lasts the whole week long, that to put our faith in action is more than just individual salvation, it’s about our collective salvation, that to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and house the homeless is not just a call for isolated charity but the imperative of a just society.
What a good man. Sometimes I think that’s the best thing to hope for when you’re eulogized, after all the words and recitations and resumes are read, to just say somebody was a good man.
(APPLAUSE)
You don’t have to be of high distinction to be a good man.
Preacher by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. What a life Clementa Pinckney lived. What an example he set. What a model for his faith.
And then to lose him at 41, slain in his sanctuary with eight wonderful members of his flock, each at different stages in life but bound together by a common commitment to God — Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, DePayne Middleton Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson.
Good people. Decent people. God-fearing people.
(APPLAUSE)
People so full of life and so full of kindness, people who ran the race, who persevered, people of great faith.
To the families of the fallen, the nation shares in your grief. Our pain cuts that much deeper because it happened in a church.
The church is and always has been the center of African American life…
(APPLAUSE)
… a place to call our own in a too-often hostile world, a sanctuary from so many hardships.
Over the course of centuries, black churches served as hush harbors, where slaves could worship in safety, praise houses, where their free descendants could gather and shout “Hallelujah…”
(APPLAUSE)
… rest stops for the weary along the Underground Railroad, bunkers for the foot soldiers of the civil-rights movement.
They have been and continue to community centers, where we organize for jobs and justice, places of scholarship and network, places where children are loved and fed and kept out of harms way and told that they are beautiful and smart and taught that they matter.
(APPLAUSE)
That’s what happens in church. That’s what the black church means — our beating heart, the place where our dignity as a people in inviolate.
There’s no better example of this tradition than Mother Emanuel, a church…
(APPLAUSE)
… a church built by blacks seeking liberty, burned to the ground because its founders sought to end slavery only to rise up again, a phoenix from these ashes. (APPLAUSE)
When there were laws banning all-black church gatherers, services happened here anyway in defiance of unjust laws. When there was a righteous movement to dismantle Jim Crow, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached from its pulpit, and marches began from its steps.
A sacred place, this church, not just for blacks, not just for Christians but for every American who cares about the steady expansion…
(APPLAUSE)
… of human rights and human dignity in this country, a foundation stone for liberty and justice for all.
That’s what the church meant.
(APPLAUSE)
We do not know whether the killer of Reverend Pinckney and eight others knew all of this history, but he surely sensed the meaning of his violent act. It was an act that drew on a long history of bombs and arson and shots fired at churches, not random but as a means of control, a way to terrorize and oppress…
(APPLAUSE)
… an act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination, violence and suspicion, an act that he presumed would deepen divisions that trace back to our nation’s original sin.
Oh, but God works in mysterious ways.
(APPLAUSE)
God has different ideas.
(APPLAUSE)
He didn’t know he was being used by God.
(APPLAUSE)
Blinded by hatred, the alleged killer would not see the grace surrounding Reverend Pinckney and that Bible study group, the light of love that shown as they opened the church doors and invited a stranger to join in their prayer circle.
The alleged killer could have never anticipated the way the families of the fallen would respond when they saw him in court in the midst of unspeakable grief, with words of forgiveness. He couldn’t imagine that.
(APPLAUSE)
The alleged killer could not imagine how the city of Charleston under the good and wise leadership of Mayor Riley, how the state of South Carolina, how the United States of America would respond not merely with revulsion at his evil acts, but with (inaudible) generosity. And more importantly, with a thoughtful introspection and self-examination that we so rarely see in public life. Blinded by hatred, he failed to comprehend what Reverend Pinckney so well understood — the power of God’s grace.
(APPLAUSE)
This whole week, I’ve been reflecting on this idea of grace.
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The grace of the families who lost loved ones; the grace that Reverend Pinckney would preach about in his sermons; the grace described in one of my favorite hymnals, the one we all know — Amazing Grace.
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How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
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I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.
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According to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God.
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As manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. Grace — as a nation out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind.
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He’s given us the chance where we’ve been lost to find out best selves. We may not have earned this grace with our rancor and complacency and short-sightedness and fear of each other, but we got it all the same. He gave it to us anyway. He’s once more given us grace.
But it is up to us now to make the most of it, to receive it with gratitude and to prove ourselves worthy of this gift.
For too long, we were blind to the pain that the Confederate Flag stirred into many of our citizens.
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It’s true a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge, including Governor Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise…
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… as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.
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For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression…
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… and racial subjugation.
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We see that now.
Removing the flag from this state’s capital would not be an act of political correctness. It would not an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be acknowledgement that the cause for which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.
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The imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong.
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It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s history, a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds.
It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have transformed this state and this country for the better because of the work of so many people of goodwill, people of all races, striving to form a more perfect union.
By taking down that flag, we express adds grace God’s grace.
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But I don’t think God wants us to stop there.
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For too long, we’ve been blind to be way past injustices continue to shape the present.
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Perhaps we see that now. Perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty…
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… or attend dilapidated schools or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career.
Perhaps it causes us to examine what we’re doing to cause some of our children to hate.
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Perhaps it softens hearts towards those lost young men, tens and tens of thousands caught up in the criminal-justice system and lead us to make sure that that system’s not infected with bias.
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… that we embrace changes in how we train and equip our police so that the bonds of trust between law enforcement…
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… and the communities they serve make us all safer and more secure.
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Maybe we now realize the way a racial bias can infect us even when we don’t realize it so that we’re guarding against not just racial slurs but we’re also guarding against the subtle impulse to call Johnny back for a job interview but not Jamal…
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… so that we search our hearts when we consider laws to make it harder for some of our fellow citizens to vote…
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… by recognizing our common humanity, by treating every child as important, regardless of the color of their skin…
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… or the station into which they were born and to do what’s necessary to make opportunity real for every American. By doing that, we express God’s grace.
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For too long…
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For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation.
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Sporadically, our eyes are open when eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a movie theater, 26 in an elementary school. But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day…
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… the countless more whose lives are forever changed, the survivors crippled, the children traumatized and fearful every day as they walk to school, the husband who will never feel his wife’s warm touch, the entire communities whose grief overflows every time they have to watch what happened to them happening to some other place.
The vast majority of Americans, the majority of gun owners want to do something about this. We see that now.
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And I’m convinced that by acknowledging the pain and loss of others, even as we respect the traditions, ways of life that make up this beloved country, by making the moral choice to change, we express God’s grace.
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We don’t earn grace. We’re all sinners. We don’t deserve it.
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But God gives it to us anyway.
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And we choose how to receive it. It’s our decision how to honor it.
None of us can or should expect a transformation in race relations overnight. Every time something like this happens, somebody says, “We have to have a conversation about race.” We talk a lot about race.
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There’s no shortcut. We don’t need more talk.
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None of us should believe that a handful of gun safety measures will prevent every tragedy.
It will not. People of good will will continue to debate the merits of various policies as our democracy requires — the big, raucous place, America is. And there are good people on both sides of these debates.
Whatever solutions we find will necessarily be incomplete. But it would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe, if we allow ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again.
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Once the eulogies have been delivered, once the TV cameras move on, to go back to business as usual. That’s what we so often do to avoid uncomfortable truths about the prejudice that still infects our society.
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To settle for symbolic gestures without following up with the hard work of more lasting change, that’s how we lose our way again. It would be a refutation of the forgiveness expressed by those families if we merely slipped into old habits whereby those who disagree with us are not merely wrong, but bad; where we shout instead of listen; where we barricade ourselves behind preconceived notions or well-practiced cynicism.
Reverend Pinckney once said, “Across the south, we have a deep appreciation of history. We haven’t always had a deep appreciation of each other’s history.”
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What is true in the south is true for America. Clem understood that justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other; that my liberty depends on you being free, too.
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That — that history can’t be a sword to justify injustice or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, how to break the cycle, a roadway toward a better world. He knew that the path of grace involves an open mind. But more importantly, an open heart.
That’s what I felt this week — an open heart. That more than any particular policy or analysis is what’s called upon right now, I think. It’s what a friend of mine, the writer Marilyn Robinson, calls “that reservoir of goodness beyond and of another kind, that we are able to do each other in the ordinary cause of things.”
That reservoir of goodness. If we can find that grace, anything is possible.
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If we can tap that grace, everything can change. Amazing grace, amazing grace.
Amazing grace…
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… how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now, I see.
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Clementa Pinckney found that grace…
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… Cynthia Hurd found that grace…
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… Susie Jackson found that grace…
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… Ethel Lance found that grace…
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… DePayne Middleton Doctor found that grace…
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… Tywanza Sanders found that grace…
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… Daniel L. Simmons, Sr. found that grace…
(APPLAUSE) … Sharonda Coleman-Singleton found that grace…
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… Myra Thompson found that grace…
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… through the example of their lives. They’ve now passed it onto us. May we find ourselves worthy of that precious and extraordinary gift as long as our lives endure.
May grace now lead them home. May God continue to shed His Grace on the United States of America.
After Tamir’s death, the county prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, an elected official, responsible for seeking justice for Tamir, instead blamed my 12 year old boy for his own death.
