Soooo… last week it was about why bad things don’t go away. Sometimes it is complicated. Tomorrow Michael Brown is buried. Perennial hand puppet Al Sharpton will come in for a drive by eulogy expanding his brand on the death of another young black man. We don’t know whether it will drive a new round of protests and possible trouble maker violence or whether a tired hot city just wants to “move on”.
And that road goes on and on into the sunset.
And my destiny is bound to move me on.
-Missouri
That was a bad song and a bad quote but it might resonate for people of a “certain age”. Watching Lacey Clay on “Face The Nation” talking about militarization of our police. Watching Jay Nixon on “Meet The Press” be quizzed on “his failures”. It is all just a yawn now as we forget that there is a family that no longer has a son. To be fair, at least three other families have lost a son this week.
Trevon Kirksey
Taron Selfie
Kajiemme Powell
All dead. One also killed by a police officer but the death gruesomely filmed and his video death apparently passes muster. The other two young men were just gunned down on the street and to be totally fair to our police, our government, our city, our Christian community and their neighborhoods, no one who was not a friend or relative gives a shit.
Who is lighting a candle for them?
Where is Al Sharpton for them?
Why is Antonio French not marching at midnight for youths actually murdered in the City of St. Louis?
Where is self promoter Maria Chappelle-Nadal and all her righteous indignation?
Who is lighting a candle for them?
What about Darrell Wilson? No one seriously believes this cop came out looking to kill anyone that day. At best he over reacted in a threatening situation… at worst… he really, really fucked up. His life as he knew it is over. But he is still alive.
Elvis Costello might have summed it up:
Well you know your time has come and you're sorry for what you've done
You should've never have been playing with a gun
In those Complicated Shadows
Well there's a line that you must toe
and it'll soon be time to go
but it's darker than you know in those Complicated Shadows
All you gangsters and rude clowns
Who were shooting up the town
When you should have found someone to put the blame on
Though the fury's hot and hard
I still see that cold graveyard
There's a solitary stone that's got your name on!
-Elvis Costello: Complicated Shadows
***
But we want to “move on”. It is hot. We are tired. Ferguson needs to get back to business. The kids need to go to school. People need to “live their lives”. Really?
A personal favorite of mine, Mike Doughty has a song called “Move On”. I think he wrote it around the 2007.
“Down in the mouth and not half right
But I can feel the changes comin' on
Bloom like flowers in bluest night
Bloom like the sunlight in my song
Dum dumb, dum dumb, dum
Dum dumb, bay, dumb, dumb
Move on, move on, dum dumb
Dum dumb, dum, dum dumb, bay
All of the words you can't say right
Burn my ass with anger to no end
I love my country so much man
Like an exasperating friend”
-Move On (Sunlight In My Song)
Tell it brother. Speaking the truth with love. Like an exasperating friend. I am still trying to figure out what to do. What my response should be. How do I change me? I live in a white, protected, privileged silo. Physical violence, threat, confrontation, discrimination… they are not part of my life.
My Pastor is calling me out. My wife is calling me out. My life is calling me out. Many people are talking and dialoguing. That is good.
My wife is doing constructive and engaging things and I am proud of her, but what do I do?
I wanted to attend funeral services or memorial services for one of these young men killed this week that was not Mike Brown. I couldn’t find the information. Young men who are gunned down in the streets get a mention (normally one day) in the “Law and Order” section of the post. There are no Obituaries for;
Trevon Kirksey
Taron Selfie
Kajiemme Powell
There are no funeral listings. I don’t know what I would do at such a funeral. Sit in back by myself. See a families loss? Pray with them? Pray for them? Light a candle for them? Remember for a minute that this man lived and died? Remember that another one of God’s children has gone along to his reward in a way never contemplated by our creator?
So I am trying to figure it out. What will I do? Will I move on and look back and talk about the “tragedy of Ferguson” and pontificate. Or I will I find a way to be part of a real change? What are you going to do?
“Dum dumb, dum dumb, dum
Dum dumb, bay, dumb, dumb
Move on, move on, dum dumb
Dum dumb, dum, dum dumb, bay”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csVcI2v82KY
Sometimes it is complicated. Indeed.
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