How To Not Be Ferguson with KCPD Major Anthony Ell; dialog groups; being better neighbors
Dave
http://allsoulskc.org/category/sunday-forum/
Forum, November 30, 10:00 am
“How To Not Be Ferguson” with Major Anthony Ell, KCPD
How does our city’s police department approach the challenges that led to such disastrous results in Ferguson this summer? What can we as citizens do to support law enforcement and hold it accountable? What do our children need to know? Major Ell is an engaging representative of the KC Police Department, who will also address our teens following this Forum.
The above Forum was scheduled weeks (or two months?) ago. This Sunday’s Forum is especially timely given what happened last night. Please come and participate in civil discourse.
Before or after the Forum, you may be able to meet Janet, who has committed decades to racial justice work and has been organizing several interracial dialog groups (churches, community centers, a prison…) around the book The New Jim Crow. Contact her at janetbri...@gmail.com, if you are interested in how showing up for the dialog can help chase ignorance out of the shadows and to peacefully lead to solutions.
KC may not be able to heal Ferguson (especially since racial justice and civil rights has been multi-decade progressive works with “miles to go before we sleep”), but we can try to be better neighbors (with our KC locals, beleaguered St Louis, and over-stressed larger world). We can have hope since our city on the other side of this purple state didn’t have some of the inflamed actions that happened coast to coast last night. That’s at least in part in thanks to Mayor, KCPD, clergy, SCLC, ULKC, Dr. Green, MLK Parades, creative programs like http://minddrive.org/donate/mindfull/, groups like http://www.more2.org/, and local leaders responding and trying to respond to KC youth/Plaza/shootings/education/community centers…
For those in the bcc (ministers leading Sunday activities, press, educators, leaders, groups, officers…), if you can’t attend this Sunday @10am (Forums rerun Wed @noon on KKFI), please consider what Major Anthony Ell offers and the multi-year commitment you may be able to subsequently offer.
Food for thought:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlk-a-riot-is-the-language-of-the-unheard/ A riot is the language of the unheard. What is it that America has failed to hear? --Rev. Dr. MLK, Jr.
The video link above is three years after "I Have a Dream" and the March on Washington. Dr. King talked with Mike Wallace about divisions in the Civil Rights movement. Mike Wallace asks MLK, “How many summers like this one do you imagine that we can expect?”
That question carries the profundity that it can still be asked decades later.
https://mobile.twitter.com/larryelder/status/537249456911945728 Study: riots hurt property values for decades, eroding equity from residents' biggest asset--their home.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1u9yZY63wO4C&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=larry+elder+property+value+riots&source=bl&ots=lcgztYiJp2&sig=MnMw0v0sUv1aDh0AykZ9aM5l8ck&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DQjqU76pGomiigLMwYCIAQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=larry%20elder%20property%20value%20riots&f=false “…riots’ destruction depressed incomes and property values in the inner city for decades.”
-What does it mean that Heal St Louis (http://healstl.org/) opens an office in Ferguson near the site of the shooting only to get burned down last night?
-Given that individuals and groups came to Ferguson with voter-reg drives to try to address that piece of the puzzle, only to have abysmally low new voters, what does that mean?
-Can we ever become a society where 75+% of citizens resist apathy and vote (or have a national day off for election day, or do mail-in or online ballots like some cities did last election cycle, or whatever it will take to increase citizen participation and non-violent expression)?
-How do you educate youth/people about non-violence and the deep consequences of looting?
[Last night’s videos of damaging Dollar Tree, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Walgreens, McDonalds, Ferguson Market and Liquor, car lot, nail salon… may result in a handful of items gained but ends up costing a profound additional loss of hope and jobs, costs many more dollars from the locals who have to travel further to do their shopping, destroyed businesses leading to locals who are instantly laid-off or unemployed and have their economic lives further turned upside down, further depressing real estate leading to further spiraling things downward, businesses that are torched or otherwise run out of town, and potential new businesses that end up saying “no thanks.”]
-https://mobile.twitter.com/jmattbarber/status/537274633473761280 Nothing says "justice" like looting a cart full of Zingers, Funyuns & Colt 45 from the black-owned store you've just set on fire
-In case it gets lost in the shuffle with wishful or dismissive thinking that Ferguson may just pass in subsequent news cycles, consider that there presently are similar grand jury matters pending in Cincinnati and NYC.
-Consider that this “Afraid of the Dark” reaction has international and millennia of issues (like Romanians having generations of ill will towards their fellow citizens that are darker skinned but still white neighbors, from Romans to Germans oppressing Jews, poorer Londoners displaced by the building of stadiums for the Olympics, apartheid, lands taken and crimes against natives by Australians/Americans/Canadians…, railroad commerce advancing by taking advantage of Chinese/Irish/Blacks, Aztecs pushing out the Mayans only to subsequently be dominated by Spaniards, before the Civil War with free Blacks owning and selling other Blacks –like in New Orleans where there were even wealthy Black-owned plantations that you can go tour and see for yourself, profiteering from slavery still existing today in parts of the world, African/Arabic/Asian… lighter skinned people oppressing their darker skinned fellow human beings from lifetimes ago right up to Qatar present day crimes against humanity to build venues for the upcoming World Cup...).
-When we were in London for the Olympics and visited museums, we learned more about their local histories (and how perspective matters, depending on who is framing/re-framing that news or history). Consider http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/riot-is-the-language-of-the-unheard-what-mlk-would-have-said-about-the-london-riots/. “It must be remembered that genuine peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.” --MLK
The New Jim Crow is the book that has grown to insightful reading circles in KC. Not too long ago, and hopefully ongoing, KC had reading circles for Afraid of the Dark: What Whites and Blacks Need to Know About Each Other.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/170335802/Afraid-of-the-Dark-Reading-Circle-Initiative
https://www.scribd.com/book/161017449/Afraid-of-the-Dark-What-Whites-and-Blacks-Need-to-Know-about-Each-Other
The opposite of poverty is not wealth — the opposite of poverty is justice.
http://www.ted.com/speakers/bryan_stevenson
http://brianbrownewalker.com/2010/04/03/the-opposite-of-poverty-is-not-wealth-the-opposite-of-poverty-is-justice/
Check for 2015 dates at http://www.sclckc.org/SiteResources/Data/Templates/t2.asp?docid=573&DocName=Welcome. http://www.sclckc.org/SiteResources/Data/Templates/t2.asp?docid=611&DocName=2014%20Youth%20Leadership%20Development%20Workshop
http://fox2now.com/2014/11/25/stlmoms-how-to-explain-the-unrest-in-ferguson-to-children/
Gandhi defeated an overwhelmingly powerful British Army by teaching the power of non-violence.
Mandela won over his jailor(s), overturned a repressive and deadly regime, AND brought those disparate groups together to focus on healing and solutions.
Can our USA leaders re-teach those lessons?
Can we all relearn, for everyone’s greater good?