I am worried about armed civilians showing up to rallies. I have mentioned this before, but now that we’ve had a shooting in Albuquerque, I have to bring it up again. Police Brutality at protests is bad enough, but civilians shooting each other is terrorizing. …I don’t think you want folks with guns at your rallies, so let’s not have folks with guns at other rallies either.
… Today’s beacon is the Reverend William Barber (WJBII), born in my birthplace, Indianapolis & raised in NC. In 2018 he preached that we need an “army of moral defibrillators” to “shock the heart of the nation” & championed the “Third Reconstruction Movement.” I think the movement has started & I look forward to listening to the sermon he gave yesterday at the Washington Cathedral. …
I’m sorry that it’s not a happy day for your 74th birthday. I wish I could focus on the “Trumptillas” that your fans have been having for the past few weeks in Charleston Harbor, Lake Havasu, the Detroit River & San Diego, Bay, but the news of the latest murder of an unarmed Black man in Atlanta at the hands of the police has overshadowed the spark of joy I might have had from seeing so many people having fun riding in their boats…..
… I was surprised to learn that you didn’t invite the Dallas Law Enforcement leaders to your roundtable today. I hope you invited Sara Mokuria (SM), co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality. She would like to see Dallas investing more money into mental health programs, drug treatment and the schools rather than militarizing the police department….
The “defunding” campaign is not about abolishing police departments. It’s about building a system with a different, more compassionate mindset. At your meeting yesterday, Livingston County Sheriff, Tony Childress, was alluding to that when he talked about the need for police to be a “friend of the community.”
Can you believe that Tiananmen Square happened 31 years ago? At the time, I remember thinking, I’m not sure I would be brave enough to stand in front of a tank. I showed that famous image to my students last June & most had not seen it. My students from China were especially interested. When I asked them to what they thought the protesters might be thinking, they had a hard time answering that question….
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I also hope you will call Archbishop Wilton Gregory and apologize for using the SJP2 shrine for your publicity venue yesterday. He’s quite bothered that “any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.”
