Faith in Action

Ron Cassie, The Examiner
Mar 23, 2007 3:00 AM (7 hrs ago)
Current rank: # 56 of 24,176

BALTIMORE - Chanting “No education, no life”, more than 100 city students from more than a dozen Baltimore high schools demonstrated at a “die-in” in front of Baltimore City public school headquarters Thursday morning.

Falling to the concrete amid recorded “screams” while creating a pseudo crime scene complete with yellow police tape and chalk-outlined bodies on the North Avenue sidewalk, the students drew a compelling connection between education and crime in the city.

We have the second-highest murder rate in the country, said Amani Love, a ConneXions Leadership Academy ninth-grader. Where I live, so many people can’t read, can’t do math and really aren’t qualified to do anything. With no education, they can’t expect to get a decent job. What else are people supposed to do, but fall down in this system? That’s why we have the second-highest murder rate in the country.

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I was blessed to be a participant in a powerful weekend of Faith and prayer for peace this past weekend in DC.  The weekend’s events were organized by Christian Peace Witness - a coalition of Christian organizations calling for an end to the war, the redeployment of American soldiers, and the rebuilding of Iraq.  Thousands of Christians and those of other Faiths participated in a peace service at the National Cathedral with the overflow watching from surrounding sanctuaries.  I watched the service on the big screen at New York Ave. Presb. Church along with Pastor Andrew Foster Conners (Brown Memorial Park Ave. Presb. Church) and a few of my mentors: Dr. Arnold Howard (Enon Baptist), Dr. William Calhoun (Trinity Baptist Church), and Baltimore civil rights legend, Rev. Marion C. Bascom.  It was a wonderful experience participating in that worship experience with thousands of Believers from across the nation. 

It was even more gratifying and life changing to march forward with hundreds of prayerful people and be arrested at the gates of the White House for participating in an act of divine obedience (civil disobedience).  I spent Friday night leading into Saturday morning in the custody of the DC Police Department.  Being handcuffed, photographed, and fingerprinted for my beliefs was a liberating experience.  Maybe that sounds like an oxymoron, but I found that carrying the cross of public arrest based on my convictions as a Christian, freed me to trust God in ways that I never had before.  As I surrendered my physical freedom to those forces that secure the kingdom of this world, I secured my spiritual liberation to grow in faith to God.  While family and friends were understandably concerned about my decision to go forward with being arrested, I knew that God required a higher level of sacrifice from me.  I could not refuse the moment.  I knew that that night was ordained by God and that my presence and participation there was divinely orchestrated.

Enjoy this video of a short speech I made at a peace rally organized by Baltimore United for Peace and Justice on Monday, March 19, 2007 - the 4 year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmWsLNpXh9c]

Joe Madison is testifying for the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.  He drops stats, facts, and figures left and right.  While half of my brain is listening to him - the other half is trying to organize my thoughts and sound half way intelligent while testifying. 

Madison is done and Walter Fauntroy goes next.  Like a good preacher he makes a little joke before starting to warm up the crowd.  They chuckle and he proceeds. 

While he’s talking I get my stuff together.  I think I can pull this off impromptu style now.  It hits me in that moment that growing up in the Black Church prepared me for this.  All those times that I had to stand and welcome visitors, respond to the welcome, sing a lead on a song, or pray over the offering prepared me for speaking confidently in front of people.  Thank you Church! (I gotta give a nod to the Future Business Leaders of America Club in high school too.  Did I mention that I placed 2nd in the county in the Impromptu Speaking competition?)

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If the conviction of Scooter Libby (aka Bush, Cheney, and Rove’s “fall guy”) isn’t evidence enough that the United States Government has run amuck and is being led by gangsters in suits, then perhaps you’d be interested to know that this past weekend another big story broke.  On Friday, March 9, 2007 Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, admitted during a Senate Briefing on FBI Surveillance that the FBI has been illegally (don’t miss that word) using the Patriot Act to spy on tens of thousands of American citizens. (i.e. wiretapping, opening emails, obtaining credit reports, and business information, & monitoring anti-war groups)

There’s a reason why this story broke late Friday/early Saturday morning.  It’s called the politics of news placement.  The Fourth Branch of the Government (aka mainstream American media) knows that if you want to slip something by the American people; you don’t publish it on Monday morning.  You wait until Friday when people have their minds focused on weekend plans and are less likely to give energy to heavy news items. That’s not hard to do these days.  Americans by and large are terribly apathetic - choosing to dedicate more attention to the all-important question of who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby…and how can I forget - the American Idol “controversy”.  (We have no idea of what a controversy is.)

This reminds me of a poster from my 7th grade social studies class.  It read:

THOSE WHO DO NOT STUDY HISTORY ARE BOUND TO REPEAT IT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD-UpHlB9no]

 

Like many, I received this notice this morning from NAACP Board Chair, Julian Bond:

The NAACP is sad to announce the resignation of CEO Bruce Gordon.

In a statement, NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond said: “We wish Mr. Gordon well in his future pursuits. I have named our General Counsel Dennis Hayes as interim president. We will immediately begin a widespread search for a replacement, examining candidates from the non-profit, corporate, and civil rights communities and others, seeking a new President who can insure our mission of social justice advocacy strengthens and grows as we approach our Centennial anniversary in 2009.

–Julian Bond

Citing “misalignment” with board members, Bruce Gordon called it quits 19 months after accepting the job.  All morning long I’ve been listening to talk radio and others speculate about what happened behind closed doors and question what this means for the NAACP.  I don’t know what happened behind closed doors, but I do know that this is sad for the organization.  The NAACP receives enough criticism when things are going well.  Now that there’s fat to chew the organization (and especially the Board) should prepare itself for an increased level of scrutiny.  I also imagine that it will be more difficult now to find a replacement for Gordon.  Anybody who is even thinking about throwing their name in the hat for this job, must also be thinking about whether or not they can successfully deal with the headache of working with a 60+ member board.

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