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Why Arguing Against Protesting Police Is a Bad Idea
I support the institutions of our community. Both in my word and through my tax dollars. I want a healthy and just community. That’s the reason I also support public outcry and calls for justice in the midst of injustice. And the current concerns over police brutality are just such an example. Whether it’s marching…
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Four Dead in Ohio
“Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Kent state was nearly a decade before I was born, but ever since I was in college, I found a deep attachment to this moment. It could be any campus, and really was: Kent State (May 4, 1970), its twin event at Jackson State (May 15, 1970), and the…
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Je Suis Baltimore?
It has been a week. A week since peaceful protests were transformed into an uprising. A week since the eyes of the world descended on the city to watch images that, since the dystopian experience of those living the protest and militarized police response in Ferguson, MO last year, have become increasingly familiar: flames, destruction…
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Grace in the streets of Baltimore
We might think it strange that the most significant image of grace and protection is shown by the uniting factions of rival gangs. We might think that these purveyors of violence would never be our example, our witness to grace. Of course, we’d be ignorant of what gangs hope for. Ignorant of what the people need.…
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How to blame youth for injustice
So you want to learn how to blame youth for injustice in your city? Well, you’ve come to the right place. I think the way Baltimore’s Freddie Gray protests have been handled can serve as a great template for assigning blame to a defenseless population. First you have to start with a simmering kettle that is…
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A Poem for Freddie Gray, Baltimore, and all of us
GUILT When the preacher said “I’m absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt.” My white ears hear the condemnation and the righteous call for peace. My poet ears hear the economy of language and concern. My pastor ears hear the prophetic reminding us our guilt…
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Our Side
Our side is the side that sits with the maimed and the murdered. Our side is the side that sits with the peaceful and the beaten, the prophet and the martyr. Our side is the side that sits with the people pained by the world and wrestles with the pain itself. Grappling with hate and…
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(Dis)order and Witness
Since the Occupy protests began, I’ve been struggling with what is so objectionable to so many people about protest. Perhaps I am as pinko as my former rector, Matt+ says I am, but I’ve never found protest in itself to be ugly. Between my own limited experience and the research I’ve done, criticisms of protests of…