America needs to listen to Rev Al Sharpton and his impassioned call for change, following the shooting of Michael Brown
<A link to Rev Sharpton's address online is at the foot of this>
Speaking at the funeral, Rev Sharpton quoted from the Bible,
book of Micah, Chapter 6, verse 8:
He hath showed you, O
man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
He challenged the congregation – and all America – to ask
what God requires of us and push for change.
Change, he said instead of ‘ghetto pity parties’.
He told the family of the dead 18 year old, “I want you to
know there IS a God, a God that will be with you when these crowds are gone.
Rev. Al Sharpton, was speaking at the Friendly Temple
Missionary Baptist Church in Dr Martin Luther King Drive in St Louis. He reflected on the occasionally violent
demonstrations that followed Mr. Brown’s shooting by a white police officer in
nearby Ferguson on Aug. 9.
“Michael Brown must
be remembered for more than disturbances.
He must be remembered for: This is where they started changing what was
going on. Oh yeah, there have been other times in history that became seminal
moments, and this is one of those moments. And this young man, for whatever
reason, has appealed to all of us that we’ve got to solve this and not continue
this.
He exhorted the crowd, calling on African-Americans here to
push for change instead of “sitting around having ghetto pity parties.
“All of us are required to respond to this. And all of us
must solve this.
He delivered a stirring call for change, his high-octane
speech demanding justice and changes in policing tactics but also condemning
some members of the black community for "ghetto pity parties" and
looting.
"Michael Brown must be remembered for more than
disturbances," he said. "He must be remembered for: 'this was when
they started changing what was going on'. This is one of those moments. And
this young man, for whatever reason, has appealed to all of us, that we've got
to solve this. Whatever happened, the value of this boy's life must be answered
by somebody."
"We are not going to have a fit. We got to have a
movement."
"This is about justice. This is about fairness. And
America is going to have to come to terms with the fact that there's something
wrong when we have money to give military equipment to police forces, when we don't
have money for training, and money for public education and our children.
"How do you think we look when young people march
non-violently ... and you put snipers on the roof and point guns at them – how
do we look?
"Blackness was never about being a gangster or a thug. Blackness was no matter how low we was pushed
down, we rose up anyhow. Blackness was never surrendering our pursuit of
excellence. We've got to clean up our community so we can clean up the United
States of America.
“Now you want to become a nigger and call your woman a ho,
we’ve lost where we came from.
"They had to break their mourning to ask folks to stop
looting and rioting ... Can you imagine? They have to stop mourning to get you
to control your anger. Michael Brown does not want to be remembered for a riot.
He wants to be remembered as the one who made America deal with how we are going
to police in the United States."
Listen and watch here. From
the New York Times. Please skip the adverts.
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