"Millions have seen how
you were killed by the reckless police action in Minneapolis and have protested
your death throughout this country and around the world. You suffered greatly,
your family suffered and untold thousands have suffered greatly. Your brother
has stood up and represented you, the family, community and world well. I am
touched by the Peaceful protesters and dismayed at the Anarchists. We all seek
justice for your family and they are all in my prayers. May you rest in Peace,
You are on the hearts of millions of people.” Gary native Bill Pelke, founder
of Journey of Hope . . .From Violence to healing
Bill Pelke
William Jackson speaks at Portage demonstration
A peaceful vigil in remembrance of George Floyd took place in
Portage, Indiana. Hundreds participated.
Clergymen spoke and the Portage police cooperated, closing off a main
thoroughfare and interacting with people in the crowd. Meanwhile, our unhinged president threatened
to call out the army and blamed disturbances on radical elements and overly
timid local and state officials. After peaceful protestors were attacked with
tear gas and rubber bullets, he strode to nearby St. John’s church and posed
with a Bible in his hand. Hoping like
Richard Nixon in 1968 to benefit from the chaos, Trump proclaimed himself to be
the “Law ‘n’ Order” president. Shameful
and beyond disgusting. Janet Bayer wrote: “Jesus would have been among those trampled by
horses, stung by the gases released and wounded by the "rubber"
bullets to make way for a false god to make his way to a Church Bible upside
down and no minister to greet him.” Reverend Mariann Budde said:
The President just used a Bible and one of
the churches of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the
teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for. To do so, he
sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the
church yard.
I am
outraged.
The President
did not pray when he came to St. John’s; nor did he acknowledge the agony and
sacred worth of people of color in our nation who rightfully demand an end to
400 years of systemic racism and white supremacy in our country.
We in the
Diocese of Washington follow Jesus in His Way of Love. We aspire to be people of peace and advocates
of justice. In no way do we support the President’s incendiary response to a
wounded, grieving nation. In
faithfulness to our savior who led a life of non-violence and sacrificial love,
we align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd and
countless others through the sacred act of peaceful protest.
Jim Madison posted an episode of “Uncle Dan’s
Story Hour” on an Indianapolis PBS radio station of Will Higgins interviewing
Dan Wakefield. In the novel “Going All
the Way” Wakefield wrote about two veterans returning from Korea who go on a
road trip and visit Region strip clubs in Calumet City – I reprinted an excerpt
in Steel Shavings magazine.
An Indianapolis Shortridge graduate born in
1932, Wakefield once worked for the Grand
Rapids Press and covered the 1954 trial of the two men who murdered
14-year-old Emmet Till for The Nation.
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to sit in the back of the bus ignited the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, claimed she was motivated in large part by the not
guilty verdict in the Emmet Till case. In words that resonate in our own
perilous time, Wakefield told Higgins,
“Black people are a symbol to some who want to take out their frustrations.” Now the tables are turned and, fairly or
unfairly, police have become such a symbol to some oppressed people. Recalling
his friendship with James Baldwin, he quoted words the black essayist wrote in
“Notes of a Native Son”: “I want to be an
honest man and a good writer.”
That’s my goal as well.
Chesterton Town Council member Bob Allison resigned after posting
asinine statements on Facebook. Chesterton Tribune correspondent Kevin
Nevers wrote:
The comments which
Allison posted on Facebook, as protestors converged peacefully in Hammond to
denounce police brutality and racism and in particular a police officer’s
murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd: “Get
the snowplows out!” followed by “Straight
blade ‘em!” Those comments provoked
hundreds of shares and scores of outraged replies, and Allison subsequently
apologized for them. Allison texted his
resignation, effective immediately, to a Chesterton
Tribune reporter at 2:14 p.m. Sunday, seven minutes after Clerk-Treasurer
Courtney Udvare released a statement from his colleagues on the Town Council
urging him to resign.
One hopes that Bob Allison emerges from this a better
person. The following day he claimed to
be praying for the family of George Floyd and his fellow citizens and for
forgiveness from those hurt by his statements.
Let Allison’s subsequent actions be an opportunity for him to
demonstrate his sincerity, and I, for one, will not judge his character solely
by those stupid remarks.
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