I intended to write a short post about Arbor Day and our tree work today, but I am here in the office and we are all talking about the verdict in the Sean Bell trial that was announced this morning. NYPD officers were on trial for killing Sean and injuring his two friends on the night of his bachelor party, and all were found not-guilty. This case drew wide attention due to the overwhelming force used by the officers on the unarmed men (50 bullets were fired, with stray bullets entering a train station a football-field-length away and a private residence), and the personal tragedy experienced by the Bell family on the eve of Sean's wedding, and that of his fiancee Nicole Paultre and their baby daughter.
Why plant a million trees, why advocate for new parks, why develop affordable housing, why engage in these struggles if there is no justice -- of the most basic variety, that your life will not be recklessly taken -- for young people of color in this city? We pose this question to ourselves and to you.
Friday, April 25, 2008
What Matters
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3 comments:
Whats the point if theres no justice?
Hey, my name is Timothy Holmes and as a youth organizer working at a faith & justice organization I believe it is our priority to reach towards justice at all times. Sometimes this goal gets discouraged by the injustice that goes on in society. The decision made by Arthur Cooperman that ruled the detectives of the Sean Bell case not guilty definitely discouraged a lot of policing campaigns as well as other community justice campaigns. Just knowing how substantial that case was, and realizing the concrete injustice in that case leads me to believe that if Cooperman can rule against a case like that how tangible is my campaign. It’s kind of hard to believe that its actually winnable. But as a leader and mediator of the youth of this community I have to stay confident that this job is not worthless. And as community organizers or activist I believe it is extremely necessary that we stay confident. We are mediators and leaders in this world whether we know it or not and if we don’t stand up for justice who will? The government can only reject so much. Sooner or later, I believe something has to give and this government has to give this nation the justice that it needs. And if these unjust actions continue to happen, I truly believe there will be a major revolt and division in this country. There’s only so much injustice this nation can take before people begin to snap. It has happened before, and history tends to repeat itself so the idea of an upcoming revolution is not surprising to me at all. So I guess to go back to the question, why go through the struggles… because someone has to do it, and I believe that sooner or later America will find justice and if we don’t find it soon, it won’t be a great day to be in office.
Why should we engage in Environmental struggles?
Hi, my name is David Reyes, and I believe that we should engage in Environmental struggles is because although it seems like we, the people of color and low income, have no justice, we actually can. Doing environmental work may not be political, economical, or even cultural at first, but if we all engage in bettering the environment, we can sooner reach these type of justices, because if you really think about it, they all sort of blend into each other. Many of the people in the South Bronx, who happen to be people of color and low income, have suffered a lot because of environmental justice. Many people of High income and white communities think that because most of the people in our community are people of different ethnic groups, and social classes, they think they can just use our city as a dumping site, while they have the opportunity of keeping their own neighborhoods clean and full of green. Many of us suffer trying to live in a city like this, where there is not as good air quality and green space as in the communities of high income and a lot of us struggle trying to keep it clean.
As a youth organizer from Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, I have to say that if we had a greener community, we could reach towards justice. In the campaign I'm working with, we are trying to clean up the Bronx River and turn it in to what it used to be 200 years ago. To do this, many youth organizers and community organizers, as well as myself, have to find a way to create green space in order to capture the rain water so it doesn't build up within the sewer, causing sewage to empty into the river. By getting together, people can reach a point of political justice, because as a community we can have a say in everything involving us. This also can involve economical justice because if we do want create more green space, we need people who have the skills of doing so, thus, giving jobs to people who need them. Cultural justice is also involved because some of our community members might be from different countries, and might have ideas to ways we can also stop Combined Sewer Overflow, that involve their culture.
Planting trees and advocating for new parks, and engaging in other environmental struggles are good ways to bring justice to our community and create better lives for the people in it. By planting trees and creating new parks, we can have better air quality, to lower the very high Asthma rates we have, clean the Bronx River, and give the South Bronx a much better appearance. That is why we should engage ourselves into environmental struggles, so we can better the lives of the people in our community.
This morning as I stood in front of my tv my heart sank as if someone had just placed a ton of bricks on it. I felt the injustice done to my four children and myself when we were wrongfully arrested and suffered police brutality right between the Diallo and Louima cases. Those 3 years of suffering to find out that we were not provided with a group of our peers to serve as jurors as in this case. Why? could it be because our peers know "what time it is" in the community, or chances are they have witnessed an injustice. I relived that all over again this morning. I am mourning for the injustice imposed on our community and the message this sends to our youth. "Do the right thing and everything will be fine, go to school obey the laws", we tell them. I am sure Mr. Bell did just that and look at what happened to him. I have always said this is a class issue, not just racial. Those who have the money and the power and those who have nothing. We must keep fighting. I have 11 grandchildren and 2 on the way, I expect them to continue the fight!!! Someone once said, "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees". God bless
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