When Martin Luther King was assassinated I was in the 11th grade. I was 16 years old. As the news of his death was televised an eerie feeling came over me. The impending reports of violence, anger and rioting in major cities all over the country flashed across the screen. I was afraid.
I stood on the back porch of our home in Washington, D.C. and watched the flames leap from First Street, as my neighbors, brother and our friends looted the stores that we loved and frequented. The Safeway, The Highs, the Five and Dime.
Seventh street and Fourteenth Street, the areas that we shopped on the weekends, went up in smoke, the sound of fire trucks and police sirens all around. My Mother cried so much about it......
My brother, and our friends who lived next door, stashed their loot next door under their(our friends) grandparents house. They(grandparents) found it, my brother and our friends were chastised and punished by our parents for participating, in this act of civil disobedience.
When the rioting ceased, our wonderful shopping areas looked like a war zone. The suburbs suffered none..but our areas did. Fortunately my parents had a car and we could go outside of our neighborhood, but many long time residents lives were disturbed and disrupted, by these days of rage.
It took almost ten years to revitalize once thriving shopping areas. Some areas were never restored for the use of the African American community.
Fast forward, it is 2013 almost 50years later, a black youth as been killed. His murderer released without penalty. I am 62 years old. I am sitting quietly in my home outside of Los Angeles, typing this. It is very quiet and all are asleep. I heard that the Inner City is simmering with unrest and the Police have been called in. Is a riot brewing? Will this civil unrest turn into a free for all of looting? Will it be an opportunity to make a mockery out of a family's public grief and the shock of the world, by getting some new tennis shoes, caps or jeans; through busting out the windows of the stores in our neighborhoods.
Woe be unto us, as Beverly Hills and Laguna Nigel sleep soundly, if we destroy what has already, been decimated by drugs, homelessness, gang violence, poverty and all of the other vices which try to haunt and bind our communities.
When we tear up our stuff, what happens? Who is willing to re-build again and again. So I say to you, yes the verdict was awful, but before you move out to obtain justice for Trayvon, I want you to answer ONE question. "YOU GONNA TEAR UP OUR STUFF AGAIN????"
You may be upset, but ummmhh..if you tear up our stuff..who do you hurt???? THINK ABOUT IT!!!!! and find an alternative way to have your voice heard.
Passa J speaks
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