LAPD: Ferguson Protesters To Be Released By Thanksgiving Dinner

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LAPD: Ferguson Protesters To Be Released By Thanksgiving Dinner

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Demonstrators who can’t make bail after being arrested during Los Angeles protests linked to the Ferguson police shooting will be released in time for Thanksgiving dinner, police said Thursday. About 90 people remained in jail after being arrested late Wednesday, and those who weren’t able to pay the $500 bail were to be released on their own recognizance, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said. A total of 338 people were arrested over three days during protests in Los Angeles, including 145 on Wednesday. Those with outstanding warrants or who were arrested on suspicion of a felony will not be released, but those taken in for disturbing the peace and failure to disperse — both misdemeanors — will…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Demonstrators who can’t make bail after being arrested during Los Angeles protests linked to the Ferguson police shooting will be released in time for Thanksgiving dinner, police said Thursday.

About 90 people remained in jail after being arrested late Wednesday, and those who weren’t able to pay the $500 bail were to be released on their own recognizance, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said. A total of 338 people were arrested over three days during protests in Los Angeles, including 145 on Wednesday.

Those with outstanding warrants or who were arrested on suspicion of a felony will not be released, but those taken in for disturbing the peace and failure to disperse — both misdemeanors — will be freed, Smith said.

Many of them would have otherwise remained in custody until Monday, when courts reopen after the holiday weekend.

“We have the legal right to keep them until Monday but it’s the holidays,” Smith said.

Another 35 people were arrested in Oakland on Wednesday following a march that deteriorated into vandalism.

On Monday and Tuesday, some demonstrators in Oakland vandalized businesses and blocked freeways.

During the demonstration Wednesday in Los Angeles, people marched to a federal building and police headquarters but were turned away by police after heading toward the county jail and then the Staples Center arena.

Nine people were arrested for sitting in a bus lane on U.S. 101 near downtown during one of the busiest driving days of the year.

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LAPD: Ferguson Protesters To Be Released By Thanksgiving Dinner

Ferguson Celebrates Thanksgiving After A Quiet Night

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Ferguson Celebrates Thanksgiving After A Quiet Night

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Protesters in Ferguson pressed pause Thursday as the city welcomed Thanksgiving, decorating boarded-up storefronts with some Dr. Seuss inspiration and gathering for church services — a stark contrast to previous days of outrage over the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case. No police officers or Missouri National Guard members stood sentry outside the Ferguson police station, which has been a nexus for protesters since Monday night’s announcement that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, wouldn’t be indicted for fatally shooting the unarmed black 18-year-old in August. On that downtown street, beneath a…

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Protesters in Ferguson pressed pause Thursday as the city welcomed Thanksgiving, decorating boarded-up storefronts with some Dr. Seuss inspiration and gathering for church services — a stark contrast to previous days of outrage over the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case.

No police officers or Missouri National Guard members stood sentry outside the Ferguson police station, which has been a nexus for protesters since Monday night’s announcement that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, wouldn’t be indicted for fatally shooting the unarmed black 18-year-old in August. On that downtown street, beneath a lighted “Season’s Greetings” garland, three children used paintbrushes to decorate the plywood covering many storefront windows that was put up to foil potential vandals. One quoted from “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”

“We thought we’d do what we could to make it a little more attractive and then try to bring the kids into it and get them involved in making the businesses appear a little less scary, depressing,” said Leah Bailey, as her 7-year-old son Dennis climbed a ladder to finish an orange dragon.

Since the grand jury’s decision, protests have taken place across the country. Most have been peaceful. But at least 130 demonstrators who refused to disperse during a Los Angeles protest were arrested Wednesday night, while 35 people were detained in Oakland following a march that deteriorated into unrest and vandalism, according to police officials.

Back in Ferguson, Greater St. Mark Family Church sits blocks from where several stores went up in flames after the grand jury announcement. A handful of people listened to the Rev. Tommie Pierson preach Thursday that the destruction and chaos was by “a small group of out-of-control people out there.”

“They don’t represent the community, they don’t represent the mood nor the feelings of the community,” Pierson said. “I would imagine if you talked to them, they probably don’t even live here. So, we don’t want to be defined by what they did.”

In downtown St. Louis, a group gathered near Busch Stadium for what organizer Paul Byrd called a “pro-community” car rally meant to be peaceful and counter the recent Ferguson violence he suggested has tarnished the region’s image.

Byrd, a 45-year-old construction worker from Imperial, Missouri, declined to say whether he supported Wilson but noted, “I totally support police officers.” The cruise was escorted by a city police vehicle; no protesters showed up.

___

Link to grand jury documents: http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_documents/ferguson-shooting/

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Ferguson Celebrates Thanksgiving After A Quiet Night

Racism: It’s the Law

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Racism: It’s the Law

Smoke and fire, sirens blaring, horns honking, a sudden hail of bullets. This is what passes for the American dialogue on race and justice. It’s hidden until it explodes. “By 10 p.m., a St. Louis County Police squad car burned just down the street from the Ferguson Police Department, with spare ammunition ‘cooking off’ or exploding in the car,” the Wall Street Journal informed us. Those who want to shake their heads in disgust can do so. American institutional racism conceals itself so neatly from those who prefer not to see it and, of course, aren’t victimized by it. And then every so often something sets off the public trigger — an 18-year-old young man is shot …

Smoke and fire, sirens blaring, horns honking, a sudden hail of bullets. This is what passes for the American dialogue on race and justice.

It’s hidden until it explodes.

“By 10 p.m., a St. Louis County Police squad car burned just down the street from the Ferguson Police Department, with spare ammunition ‘cooking off’ or exploding in the car,” the Wall Street Journal informed us.

Those who want to shake their heads in disgust can do so. American institutional racism conceals itself so neatly from those who prefer not to see it and, of course, aren’t victimized by it. And then every so often something sets off the public trigger — an 18-year-old young man is shot and killed by a police officer, for instance — and the reality TV that is our mainstream news brings us the angry, “violent” response, live. And it’s always one side against another, us vs. them. It’s always war.

“But what is justice in a nation built on white supremacy and the destruction of black bodies?” Mychal Denzel Smith wrote in The Nation the day after the grand jury announced that police officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted. “That’s the question we have yet to answer. It’s the question that shakes us up and makes our insides uncomfortable. It’s the question that causes great unrest.”

What is justice, indeed? And beyond that question are the real questions, perhaps unanswerable. What is healing? What is peace?

If the officer had been indicted for Michael Brown’s killing and then convicted on one charge or another, maybe that would have been justice, in a “case closed” sort of way. In our limited legal bureaucracy, “justice” means nothing more than punishment. Even when such justice is done, it changes nothing. The state’s “interest” has been satisfied, and that’s all that matters. The terrible loss suffered by parents, friends and community would remain a gaping wound. And beyond that, the social brokenness and racism that caused the tragedy in the first place would remain unaddressed, unhealed.

But not even that minimal justice was in the cards for the loved ones of Michael Brown or the occupied community in which he lived — because that’s not how it works. Officer Wilson, whatever he did inside or outside the state’s rules on the use of lethal force when he confronted Brown on the afternoon of Aug. 9, was just doing his job, which was controlling and intimidating the black population of Ferguson. He was on the front line of a racist and exploitative system — an occupying bureaucracy.

The New York Times, in its story about the grand jury’s decision, began thus: “Michael Brown became so angry when he was stopped by Officer Darren Wilson on Canfield Drive here on Aug. 9, his face looked ‘like a demon,’ the officer would later tell a grand jury.”

This sort of detail is, of course, of immense value to those who sympathize with the police shooting and accuse the black community of endemic lawlessness. See! Michael Brown wasn’t just a nice, innocent boy minding his own business. He and his companion were trouble incarnate, walking down the middle of the street spoiling for a fight. He was Hulk Hogan. The cop had no choice but to shoot, and shoot again. This was a demonic confrontation. Politeness wouldn’t have worked.

If nothing else, such testimony shows the stark limits of our “who’s at fault?” legal system, which addresses every incident in pristine, absurd isolation and has no interest beyond establishing blame — that is to say, officially stamping the participants as either villains, heroes or victims. Certainly it has no interest in holistic understanding of social problems.

Taking Wilson’s testimony at face value, one could choose to ask: Why was Michael Brown so angry?

Many commentators have talked about the “anger” of Ferguson’s black community in the wake of the shooting, but there hasn’t been much examination of the anger that was simmering beforehand, which may have seized hold of Brown the instant the police officer stopped him.

However, an excellent piece of investigative journalism by Radley Balko of the Washington Post, “How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty,” which ran in September, addresses the issue head-on. He makes the point that local municipal governments, through an endless array of penny-ante citations and fines — “poverty violations” — torment the locals for the primary, or perhaps sole, purpose of keeping their bureaucracies funded.

“Some of the towns in St. Louis County can derive 40 percent or more of their annual revenue from the petty fines and fees collected by their municipal courts,” Balko writes. The fines are mostly for traffic offenses, but they also include fines for loud music, unmown lawns, “wearing saggy pants” and “vague infractions such as ‘disturbing the peace,'” among many others, and if the person fined, because he or she is poor, can’t pay up, a further fine is added to the original, and on and on it goes.

“There’s also a widely held sentiment that the police spend far more time looking for petty offenses that produce fines than they do keeping these communities safe,” Balko writes. “If you were tasked with designing a regional system of government guaranteed to produce racial conflict, anger, and resentment, you’d be hard pressed to do better than St. Louis County.”

Regarding the anger and resentment in communities like Ferguson, he quotes a longtime racial justice activist, Jack Kirkland, who says, “I liken it to a flow of hot magma just below the surface. It’s always there, building, pushing up against the earth. It’s just a matter of time. When it finds a weak point, it’s going to blow.”

And when it blows, we get to watch it on TV: the flames, the smoke, the rage, the ammo “cooking off.” This is what institutional racism looks like when we finally notice it.

Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His book Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press) is still available. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com, or visit his website at commonwonders.com.

© 2014 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, INC.

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Racism: It’s the Law

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Celebrates 2014’s Huge Hits

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Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Celebrates 2014’s Huge Hits

The 88th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ran through New York City on Thursday, bringing Snoopy, Hello Kitty and Spider-Man along with it. Hosted by “The Today Show’s” Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker, the legendary parade featured marching bands, Broadway casts, Quvenzhané Wallis and some of the biggest names in pop music. From Idina Menzel to Lucy Hale, Sting to Nick Jonas, here’s a look at this year’s highlights. KISS was typical KISS. …And then hung out with Idina Menzel. Just hanging with some buddies before #macysparade @paulstanleylive @tommy_thayer A photo posted by Idina Menzel (@idinamenzel) on Nov 11, 2014 at 5:59am PST Meghan …

The 88th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ran through New York City on Thursday, bringing Snoopy, Hello Kitty and Spider-Man along with it. Hosted by “The Today Show’s” Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker, the legendary parade featured marching bands, Broadway casts, Quvenzhané Wallis and some of the biggest names in pop music. From Idina Menzel to Lucy Hale, Sting to Nick Jonas, here’s a look at this year’s highlights.

KISS was typical KISS.
thanksgiving day parade

…And then hung out with Idina Menzel.

Just hanging with some buddies before #macysparade @paulstanleylive @tommy_thayer

A photo posted by Idina Menzel (@idinamenzel) on

Meghan Trainor sang her new single, “Lips Are Movin.”
meghan trainor

Lucy Hale goes from “Pretty Little Liars” to country star.

Just chillin with some fish on this lovely thanksgiving day

Una foto publicada por Lucy Hale (@lucyhale) el

The Madden brothers had some family time atop a float.
joel madden

Allison Williams supported her “Peter Pan Live” co-stars.

Tony Danza’s got a voice! The “Honeymoon In Vegas!” star took the stage.
tony danza

Nick Jonas proved again why “Jealous” is actually a pretty good song.

PARADE TIME!

Uma foto publicada por @nickjonas em

Becky G performed “Can’t Stop Dancing” with Dora The Explorer and Diego.
becky g

Quvenzhané Wallis and her “Annie” co-stars sang “It’s A Hard Knocked Life.”
quvenzhane wallis

Sting riles the crowd with the cast of “The Last Ship.”
sting

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Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Celebrates 2014’s Huge Hits

Bill Cosby Gave National Enquirer Interview To Keep Other Sexual Assault Allegation Quiet

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Bill Cosby Gave National Enquirer Interview To Keep Other Sexual Assault Allegation Quiet

In 2005, Bill Cosby testified under oath that he gave The National Enquirer an exclusive interview in exchange for the tabloid’s promise to spike a story about a previously undisclosed sexual assault allegation from a woman named Beth Ferrier. “I would give them an exclusive story, my words,” Cosby said in the testimony. “[And in return, The Enquirer] would not print the story of — print Beth’s story.” Cosby’s statements, obtained by The New York Times and Associated Press, came during a deposition for a civil lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand, who claimed Cosby drugged and assaulted her. According to the Times, Cosby admitted in the previously sealed court documents that he believed if…

In 2005, Bill Cosby testified under oath that he gave The National Enquirer an exclusive interview in exchange for the tabloid’s promise to spike a story about a previously undisclosed sexual assault allegation from a woman named Beth Ferrier. “I would give them an exclusive story, my words,” Cosby said in the testimony. “[And in return, The Enquirer] would not print the story of — print Beth’s story.”

Cosby’s statements, obtained by The New York Times and Associated Press, came during a deposition for a civil lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand, who claimed Cosby drugged and assaulted her.

According to the Times, Cosby admitted in the previously sealed court documents that he believed if the public knew about Ferrier’s allegations, it would give more validity to Constand’s claims:

“Did you ever think that if Beth Ferrier’s story was printed in the National Enquirer, that that would make the public believe that maybe Andrea was also telling the truth?” Cosby was asked.

“Exactly,” he replied.

Robin Mizrahi, a senior reporter for The National Enquirer who was tasked with the Ferrier story, revealed last week to The Guardian that the tabloid spiked the piece under pressure from the actor’s lawyers. A new article, which featured an interview with Cosby in which he discussed allegations made against him by Constand and a woman named Tamara Green, was published instead.

According to The New York Times, the tabloid’s exclusive (“Bill Cosby Ends His Silence: My Story!”) described the comic as “furious” about the allegations. “Sometimes you try to help people and it backfires on you, and then they try to take advantage of you,” Cosby was quoted as saying in the 2005 piece. “I am not going to give in to people who try to exploit me because of my celebrity status.”

Cosby’s representative, David Brokaw, and Cosby’s lawyer, Martin Singer, did not respond to requests from The Huffington Post early Thursday morning for comment on the claims. A rep for American Media, Inc., which owns The National Enquirer, said in a statement to the AP on Wednesday that the tabloid was “unflinching” in its coverage of the allegations against the actor.

“We continue to remain aggressive in our reporting today and stand by the integrity of our coverage of this story which we have taken the lead on for more than a decade,” the representative said.

Cosby has a long history with The National Enquirer. On Monday, Page Six’s Richard Johnson relayed claims from a former Enquirer reporter who said Cosby leaked a 1989 story about his daughter’s drug problem. In exchange, the paper buried another story about Cosby allegedly “swinging with Sammy Davis Jr. and some showgirls in Las Vegas.”

In 1997, the Enquirer offered a $100,000 reward for information on the death of Cosby’s son, Ennis Cosby. According to a 1998 New York Times article about the conviction of Ennis Cosby’s killer, the tabloid received a tip from a man named Christopher So, who would go on to be one of the key witnesses in the case.

Two years later, Cosby threatened to sue the magazine for $250 million after it ran a story claiming Cosby had sexually assaulted an actress named Lachele Covington in his Manhattan townhouse.

“The story is not true. It did not happen,” Brokaw said in a statement to the New York Post. “Mr. Cosby was not contacted by the police and the first he learned about this was from the National Enquirer.”

“The Enquirer has an absolute right to report on this controversy and will not be intimidated by Mr. Cosby’s threat,” Enquirer publisher David J. Pecker said in a statement at the time. “Should Mr. Cosby bring a lawsuit, the Enquirer will seek appropriate sanctions against him.”

For more, head to the New York Times.

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Bill Cosby Gave National Enquirer Interview To Keep Other Sexual Assault Allegation Quiet

Michael Brown’s Father Delivers Turkeys To Ferguson Citizens

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Michael Brown’s Father Delivers Turkeys To Ferguson Citizens

Michael Brown Sr. handed out Turkeys on Saturday in the Ferguson, Missouri community where his son, Michael Brown Jr., was fatally shot by a police officer in August. The father took part in Ferguson’s annual turkey giveaway two days before a grand jury decided against indicting Darren Wilson, the officer responsible for Michael Brown Jr.’s death. Since the decision announcement on Monday, thousands of protesters nationwide have taken to the streets in demonstration against police brutality. Lesley McSpadden, mother of the slain teen, expressed her deep sadness in having to spend thanksgiving without her son to Al Sharpton on Wednesday. “I don’t even want to think about tomorrow being Thanksgiving, it’s just Thursday. I don’t even plan to celebrate because I can’t.” …

Michael Brown Sr. handed out Turkeys on Saturday in the Ferguson, Missouri community where his son, Michael Brown Jr., was fatally shot by a police officer in August.

The father took part in Ferguson’s annual turkey giveaway two days before a grand jury decided against indicting Darren Wilson, the officer responsible for Michael Brown Jr.’s death.

Since the decision announcement on Monday, thousands of protesters nationwide have taken to the streets in demonstration against police brutality.

Lesley McSpadden, mother of the slain teen, expressed her deep sadness in having to spend thanksgiving without her son to Al Sharpton on Wednesday.

“I don’t even want to think about tomorrow being Thanksgiving, it’s just Thursday. I don’t even plan to celebrate because I can’t.”

Al Sharpton held a “bonding prayer” for the families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner — another unarmed black man who was killed during a police interaction this summer — at the Harlem headquarters of his non-profit organization National Action Network. The reverend and long time civil rights activist asked for prayers for the two families this holiday season.

“This will be their first Thanksgiving with an empty seat at the table,” he said. “We hope that when people pull up to their tables on Thanksgiving, they pray for these families.”

See photos of Michael Brown Sr. delivering turkeys below.

michael brown senior turkey

michael brown senior turkey

michael brown senior turkey

michael brown senior turkey

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Michael Brown’s Father Delivers Turkeys To Ferguson Citizens

Release. Repair. Restore: Thoughts Beyond Ferguson Toward Racial Healing

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Release. Repair. Restore: Thoughts Beyond Ferguson Toward Racial Healing

A timeline of the events in Ferguson. I suppose if Ferguson was an isolated context or if Michael Brown’s death was an anomaly, congregations this Sunday might simply pray for the families, for the burning buildings, for the broken glass in the streets and the broken hearts in Ferguson and around the nation. But neither is true. Eric Garner. Marlene Pinnock. Akai Gurley. Trayvon Martin. Emmett Till. The stories attached to these names break our hearts and make us feel the past is pressing into the present. Even when we are not sure that circumstances are motivated by racism, race is “read” into these events due to our …

A timeline of the events in Ferguson.

I suppose if Ferguson was an isolated context or if Michael Brown’s death was an anomaly, congregations this Sunday might simply pray for the families, for the burning buildings, for the broken glass in the streets and the broken hearts in Ferguson and around the nation. But neither is true. Eric Garner. Marlene Pinnock. Akai Gurley. Trayvon Martin. Emmett Till. The stories attached to these names break our hearts and make us feel the past is pressing into the present. Even when we are not sure that circumstances are motivated by racism, race is “read” into these events due to our history.

Racism is in the air — in coffee shops, in classrooms, in conversations in the workplace, and in our congregational life. It breaks my heart.

As we move toward the season of Advent, and consider the circumstances of our nation, I find two texts particularly compelling.

In Luke 4, Jesus proclaims his call to ministry. Jesus came to release those who are captive to poverty, oppression, physical malady and political realities. Jesus’ role as liberator, status quo destroyer, and shackles breaker is ours, because we are the body of Christ.

In Isaiah 58, against a backdrop of national turmoil, the prophet Isaiah reminded the people of God that when we loosen the bonds of injustice, “…You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”

Our faith means a call to be liberators. And what we need most to be liberated from — what impinges the souls of Black folk, White folk and all people in these United States — is the tragic legacy of racial prejudice in our nation.

In the only book he ever published, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781), Thomas Jefferson wrote:

I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.

This suspicion led to pseudoscience and to a lie: white supremacy. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation, despite the Civil Rights Movement and now a Black man in the White House, America is not liberated from the shackles of fear and hatred based on the lie.

When a Black life is cut down, and a grand jury says that a trial is not even needed for the one who did the shooting, it seems justified by the lie.

Being Black in America can feel like suffering a million paper cuts every day, micro-abrasions that build up over time. These wounds and our history are the context for the sorrow pervasive on a day like today. There is the sense that we are devolving rather than progressing. Tragically, this sorrow can turn to anger, and the anger can lead to depression, malaise, and disengagement. It can also lead to violence.

The lie of white supremacy imprisons White people as well; guilt, shame and paralysis can result. Most of us are caught up in this lie. It affects housing patterns and resources for public schools. It affects voting rights and health care. It affects infant mortality and rates of incarceration. Sadly, 11:00 on Sunday morning is still one of the most segregated hours in America, because the lie has our hearts bound in iron.

God’s people are called to be in the business of liberation, and with that work of liberation, our names are changed. We become “repairers of broken places,” and “restorers of streets to live in.” We must take the kind of worship God desires out of our sanctuary doors and into the streets. We can do this with in three ways: with peaceful protesting, with courageous conversations, and with our eyes on the prize of racial reconciliation.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said,

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

I agree with King; our peaceful protesting will bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice. It will take time, commitment and persistence, but I personally find hope in the human capacity to be tenaciously committed to love-in-action.

Peaceful protests might be on the ground in major cities and in Ferguson, but they are also in the virtual community. Watch Twitter and comment. Post on Facebook words of hope and peace. I am personally disappointed that this case will not go to trial. But, as Dr. King says, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” No matter your position on this case, our nation is broken around issues of race. So, with hope as our impetus, we must lose the notion of faith as a spectator sport and engage racial injustice with peaceful protest.

We must engage in courageous conversations. We need to have them in and amongst our own people–our families and our children, our close friends and allies, and in our racial/ethnic groups. A caucus can be an important thing. Make space for the asking of deep questions and the sharing of even awkward sentiments. Why is this happening? What does it mean? How does it affect my soul? Aren’t we past race yet, and can I do anything about this? How does my faith in God relate to these issues? How can I be a healer?

And we must have these conversations across what might seem to be natural divides. We need to have cross-racial/cross ethnic conversations. In order to do this, we must have relationships. We can’t liberate each other while we are in silos. Multiracial/multiethnic congregations like Middle Collegiate Church are critical to the work of racial reconciliation. If your church is diverse, think of ways to encourage deeper relationships. In our context, we have an ongoing small group called Erasing Racism, in which we are having critical conversations about race. If your context is mono-cultural, find a partner with whom to relate. Create a joint worship celebration or prayer vigil during Advent and have conversation as you break bread. Use questions like: When was the first time I was othered due to my personhood? When have I othered someone else? How can these experiences plant seeds for empathy? How did I learn the story of race and what can I do to change it?

Finally, there is something about the very personhood of Jesus the Christ, a person whose ethnic heritage is in itself diverse (see Matthew 1:1-17) and whose very body calls the Body of Christ to be always on the border of difference working for racial reconciliation. This requires engagement, education, and commitment. Be a student of race and culture. Grow your “border personality;” start by reading Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye or Tim Wise’s White Like Me, or United by Faith by Curtiss DeYoung, Michael Emerson, George Yancey, and Karen Chai Kim.

As Ferguson smolders from last night’s violence, as a nation processes testimony and tactics, as the case is tried in the media, I am thinking about the lyrics to a song, penned by my friend Tituss Burgess, inspired by the poetry of June Jordan–

You and I are the ones we’ve been waiting for, you and I thought this was somebody else’s war, you and I, are the ones–the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Now is the time, and we are the ones, to release and liberate ourselves from bondage to racism, to repair what is broken in our nation, to restore peace born of justice in the streets.

Bible Study Questions

1. How have I been a releaser or liberator; is there a space in my context for more work in this area?

2. With whom might I partner for courageous conversations on race?

3. What is the call to action these texts speak to my heart?

For Further Reading

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

White Like Me, Tim Wise

United by Faith, Curtiss De Young et al

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Release. Repair. Restore: Thoughts Beyond Ferguson Toward Racial Healing

This Is What The Black Voices Family Is Thankful For

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This Is What The Black Voices Family Is Thankful For

This year, Thanksgiving came at a time of great unrest in the black community. Thousands of protesters disrupted calm across the whole of America as they expressed significant dissatisfaction with the Ferguson grand jury decision against indictment for the officer who shot unarmed teen Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Since then, and especially in recent days, police brutality, wrongful deaths and injustice have blared on radio channels, TV stations and newspaper covers. But Thanksgiving is also a time that people come together with their loved ones and celebrate what they are thankful to have. We asked the Black Voices family what they are thankful for, especially during this time and place in history. In light of recent national events but in spirit of tomorrow’s holiday, we want to …

This year, Thanksgiving came at a time of great unrest in the black community.

Thousands of protesters disrupted calm across the whole of America as they expressed significant dissatisfaction with the Ferguson grand jury decision against indictment for the officer who shot unarmed teen Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Since then, and especially in recent days, police brutality, wrongful deaths and injustice have blared on radio channels, TV stations and newspaper covers.

But Thanksgiving is also a time that people come together with their loved ones and celebrate what they are thankful to have. We asked the Black Voices family what they are thankful for, especially during this time and place in history.

See some of the responses we received below.

“I’m thankful for life and the growth I can experience everyday.” — Brandon White

“To be a young black man from St. Louis that made it to the age of 34. As we’ve seen, all of us aren’t that lucky…” — Marion J Bradley

“I’m thankful for the protestors in Ferguson.” — Jolene Gilkey

“My husband and our brand new beautiful baby boy.” — Crystal Meyer

“Thankful for just being alive to see this Day, and hoping to be blessed to see a ‘Happy Thanksgiving’!” — Barbara Millican

“Making it to adulthood.” — Jamal Connor

“Thankful for Jesus who guides my life, family, friends and the blessing of being 67.” — Thedra McMillian

“My ability to make it happen therefore providing for my family a great Thanksgiving!” — Sharon McCreary

“I’m thankful that all my Black male relatives are present and accounted for.” — Sydney Thorpe

“Beautiful family.” — DesiBruce Hendry

“Thankful my breast cancer was found and my family hasn’t left my side.” — Susan Goodman

“I am thankful for so much! My health, my family, my friends , a career in which I have continued to excel, a roof over my head and a car to drive, food to eat .. my future is so bright.” — Nicole Barnes

“Life, good health, and my wonderful family and friends.” — Jasmeen Bell

“Knowing God first before everything else, family, friends, and my health.” — Roteasha Shine

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This Is What The Black Voices Family Is Thankful For

Here’s What The Obamas Are Eating For Thanksgiving Dinner

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Here’s What The Obamas Are Eating For Thanksgiving Dinner

This year, President Barack Obama and his family are spending Thanksgiving at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where they’ll dine on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes — and six kinds of pie. Here’s this year’s menu, as provided by the White House press office: Dinner: Thyme Roasted Turkey Honey-Baked Ham Cornbread Stuffing Oyster Stuffing Braised Winter Greens Macaroni and Cheese Sweet Potato Gratin Mashed Potatoes Green Bean Casserole Dinner Rolls Dessert: Banana Cream Pie Coconut Cream Pie Pumpkin Pie Apple Pie Pecan Pie Cherry Pie As the Associated Press notes, it’s Obama’s responsibility to pick up the tab for the meal — as he does every other day of the year: Gary Walters, who was chief White …

This year, President Barack Obama and his family are spending Thanksgiving at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where they’ll dine on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes — and six kinds of pie.

Here’s this year’s menu, as provided by the White House press office:

Dinner:

Thyme Roasted Turkey
Honey-Baked Ham
Cornbread Stuffing
Oyster Stuffing
Braised Winter Greens
Macaroni and Cheese
Sweet Potato Gratin
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Dinner Rolls

Dessert:

Banana Cream Pie
Coconut Cream Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Pecan Pie
Cherry Pie

As the Associated Press notes, it’s Obama’s responsibility to pick up the tab for the meal — as he does every other day of the year:

Gary Walters, who was chief White House usher for many years, said the payment rule dates back to 1800 when the White House was first occupied by President John Adams and there was no staff. Presidents brought staff with them and paid for everything.

Congress gradually began spending money to maintain an official White House staff to oversee operations and maintenance, but presidents continued to pay for personal expenses.

What it boils down to, Walters said, is that the White House is first and foremost the president’s home.

“On behalf of the Obama family – Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Bo, and Sunny – I want to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving,” Obama said in his Thanksgiving address to the nation. “Like many of you, we’ll spend the day with family and friends, catching up, eating some good food and watching a little football. Before we lift a fork, we lend a hand by going out into the community to serve some of our neighbors in need. And we give thanks for each other, and for all of God’s blessings.”

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Here’s What The Obamas Are Eating For Thanksgiving Dinner

Protests In Ferguson Dwindle

Human Rights Fighter
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Protests In Ferguson Dwindle

ST. LOUIS (AP) — As demonstrations in California heated up overnight, the robust protests in Ferguson dwindled in size and severity as Thanksgiving approached, a change from the days immediately following the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case. People have begun cleaning up the battered suburban community of Ferguson and seeking something closer to normal. Meanwhile, a group gathered in downtown St. Louis on Thursday morning for what the organizer called a “pro-community” car cruise. Organizer Paul Byrd said the cruise — which consisted of a few vehicles, mostly pickup trucks — was meant to be peaceful and to counteract the violence seen earlier this week in Ferguson after Officer Darren Wilson was …

ST. LOUIS (AP) — As demonstrations in California heated up overnight, the robust protests in Ferguson dwindled in size and severity as Thanksgiving approached, a change from the days immediately following the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case.

People have begun cleaning up the battered suburban community of Ferguson and seeking something closer to normal. Meanwhile, a group gathered in downtown St. Louis on Thursday morning for what the organizer called a “pro-community” car cruise.

Organizer Paul Byrd said the cruise — which consisted of a few vehicles, mostly pickup trucks — was meant to be peaceful and to counteract the violence seen earlier this week in Ferguson after Officer Darren Wilson was not indicted in the fatal August shooting of 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed.

Byrd, a 45-year-old construction worker from Imperial, Missouri, declined to say whether he supported Wilson but noted, “I totally support police officers.” The cruise, which started near Busch Stadium, was escorted by a city police vehicle. No protesters showed up.

There were no reports of major confrontations or damage to property in Ferguson overnight — where about a 100 people marched in a light snow — and St. Louis County police said there were only two arrests. Troops with rifles were posted at intersections and parking lots in an area where stores were looted and burned Monday into Tuesday.

Since the grand jury’s decision was announced, demonstrators have been active in other cities throughout the U.S. Most have been peaceful. But at least 130 demonstrators who refused to disperse during a Los Angeles protest were arrested Wednesday night, while 35 people were detained in Oakland following a march that deteriorated into unrest and vandalism, according to police officials.

Ferguson business owners and residents on Wednesday covered up broken windows, cleared away debris and hoped the relative calm would last into the Thanksgiving holiday.

The footage people see on the news “is such a small bit of what’s happening here,” said Kari Hobbs, 28. “There’s so much donation and charity going on with the businesses that have been affected and the people that have been affected.”

There were no seats inside Cathy’s Kitchen — a restaurant near the Ferguson Police Department that had windows smashed during the violence — and a line had formed at the back of the building. Jerome Jenkins, who runs the restaurant with his wife, Cathy, said he never considered closing his doors.

“It really wasn’t about wondering if the building would get torched or not,” Jenkins said. “Me and my wife, we expected it to get damaged … we decided to go home, and we would live with whatever fate would give us.”

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Link to grand jury documents: http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_documents/ferguson-shooting/.

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Associated Press writers Andale Gross, Tom Foreman Jr., Jim Salter, Alex Sanz and Alan Scher Zagier also contributed to this report.

More On Ferguson From HuffPost:

Photographic Evidence Revealed | ‘First Year Law Student Could Have Done Better Job’ | Ferguson Smolders After Night Of Fires | Protest Locations | Americans Deeply Divided | What You Can Do | Darren Wilson Interview | Darren Wilson Could Still Face Consequences | Timeline | Students Protest | Shooting Witness Admitted Racism In Journal | Peaceful Responses Show The U.S. At Its Best | Reactions To Ferguson Decision | Prosecutor Gives Bizarre Press Conference | Jury Witness: ‘By The Time I Saw His Hands In The Air, He Got Shot’ | Thousands Protest Nationwide | Ferguson Unrest Takes Over Newspaper Front Pages Across The Country | Grand Jury ‘Should Be Indicted,’ Brown Lawyer Says | Grand Jury Documents Reveal Mistakes, Questionable Testimony | Parents Bring Young Kids To Bear Witness To Ferguson Protests | 12 Sobering Numbers That Define The Fight To Get Justice For Michael Brown | Saints Player’s Moving Reflection On Ferguson Goes Viral | Amid Ferguson Cleanup, Locals Look For Their Community To Rise Above The Damage | ‘They’re Murdering Our Kids And Getting Away With It’ |

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Protests In Ferguson Dwindle

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