Rally for PEACE at Baltimore’s War Memorial
Sunday was a long day for me - as most Sundays are. I attended 7:30AM service and then had to go preach at a church in West Baltimore for their 10:30AM service. To close out the day we had a 4PM service back at my home church. Like I said - a long day. (especially when you don’t eat anything, but oatmeal and grapes)
But in between the 10:30AM and 4PM service I was on the program for the No More Murders Rally at the War Memorial Plaza. Justice Maryland - the organization who planned the event - asked me to start and end the rally in prayer. I was encouraged by that because I truly believe that a spiritual revolution is just as important as a social one. We need to realign ourselves with God - especially in this country which often places the mighty dollar above God. It was my privilege to lead those who gathered in an ecumenical prayer.
The plan initially was to have 240 some people laying on the ground in front of the War Memorial (ironic that we convened at the WAR memorial in a desperate cry for PEACE) to give a human face to the often innocuous daily reports of the murder rate. The rain throughout last weekend prevented the “die in”, but we stood with our numbers nonetheless.
Many great speakers and community leaders spoke to the issue of murder in Baltimore including Walter Lomax, Doc Cheatham (Baltimore-NAACP), former delegate “Tiger” Davis, Lt. Colonel Rick Hite, and Chante’l Clea (Baltimore City Youth Commission).
But the most moving and unsettling part of the program was when one of the mothers there couldn’t hold back anymore. She stood there bravely for so long until she could not hide the weight of her grief any longer. She began to shriek and cry out, “Why! Somebody tell me why! He was my only son! He was a good boy. He was in college! I did everything I knew to do - I prayed, I laid prostrate before the Lord! God Why? Why!?”
I think I was the only clergy there - well I was the only one in my clergy attire and I felt some eyes look at me when she began to cry out. I walked over to her to join the 4 other women in embracing her, but I had no answer for her “Whys.” Some came over quoting scripture and I was about to shake my head at that because sometimes in those types of moments scripturedoesn’t cut it, but my mind wandered back to January almost 8 years ago when I received one of the most horrifying calls from my mother. I answered the phone and through her sobs she told me the news. My cousin who was more like a little brother to me had been killed and his body was dumped in the snow out in Harford County on Route 542. I collapsed in the floor - crying with no sound coming out of my mouth - wanting to die as well. Family came to console me, but I would not be consoled. Almost instinctively I grabbed the pocket-sized Bible that my grandmother bought me for my 16th birthday and I got in my truck and just drove away with no where to go. I eventually stopped and began to search the scriptures, but could find no answer. I cried and cried with the cell phone ringing on the backseat with worried family members on the other line. I would not answer their calls. I wanted to die or to kill. But though I could find no scripture to speak to my issue, I still felt some solace in clutching that Bible tight to my chest.
I realized that day that sometimes The Word is all you have to hold onto. So as we gathered for peace at the War Memorial Plaza in downtown Baltimore standing in the shadows of a chilly October sun, I ended the rally in prayer and spoke the Word of God in the atmosphere:
If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray. Seek my face. Turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
October 31st, 2007 at 11:02 am
Reverend,
I commend you for your sincerity, altruism and activism. And having said that I don’t mean to disparage you or your efforts in any way - so keep on doing the good and unselfish work that you have begun.
However, let me ask you or your audience this question. What measurable effect(s) has benign activism had on the pernicious and systemic problems that have plagued our nation (particularly the inner-cities), for what is beginning to seem like forever?
I have witnessed and participated in similar demonstrations, coast to coast, and I haven’t see any measurable improvements or changes myself - take the nation’s Capital (Dodge City) for example, where marches like these occur all the time. Murder is still rampant in DC despite the efforts of former Chief Ramsey and its new police chief, not to mention all over the rest of the American landscape. Murder is also on the rise in the ‘burbs’! Are we simply living in a predetermined and once prophesied age of lawlessness? Are Christians attemtping to abut biblical prophecy themselves?
It would appear, anecdotally, that all these rallies typically end up doing is to provide a stage for well-intended individuals to ventilate and assuage their own feelings, as well as to preach to the choir - the ones who are not guilty of commiting the crimes in the first place. What has to happen in order for those hardcore individuals who are responsible for the problem(s) in the first place, to decide to change?
Note: The FBI keeps an unofficial crime statistic, not a part of its standard Uniform Crime Statistics. The unoffical statistic reflects the number of times that a gun is discharged when used in a felony situation by an American citizen.
The number of discharges have grown exponentially over the years. In short, Americans in many instances are emptying their guns on their helpless victims. Evil is becoming more entrenched within the American society. I suspect that kind platitudes and feel good marches will continue to fail to address the real hard-core problems that face our nation!
You noted that you were the only minister at the rally. I attended a minister’s pre-rally organizational meeting, recently in the city of Akron Ohio. The planning was being done in response to an alleged instance of police brutality - the death of a young black man was the precipitating factor. Having said that, the minister’s never called for a ’solemn assembly’, or for the use of any spiritual weapons. The tenor of the minister’s meeting was much like a KKK Rally itself.
Hint at a likely solution (in addition to rallying): If my people who are called by my name would…!
October 31st, 2007 at 12:58 pm
In talking with my coworkers here in Downtown Bmore, I think the statistics for the murder rate have been fudged. Of course I don’t have evidence but with all these alleys, boarded up homes and wooded areas, I would not be surprised if the murder count goes higher.