And Then There Were None

Not too many words can be spoken into the void of the Eric Garner case. It would be unbelievable if it weren’t so believable. Routine. Banal. Black man dead. White man free. I guess the NYC cops were “Just doing what they are paid to do.”

Tomorrow I attend a gathering here in Cincinnati of local pastors and faith leaders trying to make sense of all this. Meantime I pray into the void for redress. What recompense can come to Eric Garner, who will not get his life back? To his family and friends?

“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

The myth of white innocence must be shattered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE: On December 8, a group of over 300 Catholic theologians issued a statement on racial justice, described below in a post at America magazine. I am a signatory to that statement, among others of my colleagues at Xavier University, which includes a commitment to certain actions of resistance, protest, and fasting during the season of Advent.

Please consider joining with us in prayer and actions of solidarity as you see fit. Even our humble and solitary acts of prayer, I believe, join us together with strangers in the wider mystery of grace. And in that mystery, we find the joy and courage and freedom to act. When we start walking, new pathways will rise up to greet us.