Prayer vigil conjures hope in a new reality

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THE NAMES OF 38 PEOPLE WERE PRINTED IN BOLD letters on separate pieces of white paper. They were carried to a table and placed underneath rocks to protect them from the wind. The church across from the parking lot summoned thoughts of a holy procession, with an altar, prayers, and homilies reminding us of the lives of the dead.

Ben Haas, director of The Religious Coalition of Nonviolent Durham, welcomed the more than one hundred attendees to a service of grieving. The 29^th Annual Vigil Against Violence took place at the Elizabeth Street United Methodist Church.  Because of Covid-19, last years vigil was conducted virtually. The naming of the dead reminded the people present of the worst part of Durham. The senseless deaths of men and women.

It was a mixed crowd of the varied hues of Durham, mingled with a group of politicians who have made reducing homicides part of their platforms. Javiera Cabellero, who suspended her campaign for mayor, stood beside Nida Allam, Wendy Jacobs, and Mayor Steve Schewel. On the opposite side of the parking lot, Elaine O’Neal stood near DeDreana Freeman. I was positioned close to both in an area packed with grieving family members.

The distance exposed more than paces between bodies. The detachment summoned a reminder of both political and societal dissimilarities adding to the pain.

I thought about and prayed for Allam as I looked for names on the Durham Memorial Quilt. The quilt was started by Sidney Brodie in 1994 after the senseless death of two- year-old Shaquana Atwater in Few Gardens. I cried after closing my eyes and calling the names of Allam’s friends – Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha – all murdered by a white man with a history of threatening Black and Brown neighbors in Chapel Hill, NC.

I was reminded of how political distance often lies. Allam belonged next to me as we grieved the deaths of the 38 people with names on white sheets of paper. My desire to frame others as adversary was met with a common pain that transcends labels we create to protect distance. I found five other names to add to the blues of Tia Carraway’s memory. I remembered standing with her family as we identified a body battered by bullets and rigamortis.

Thirty-eight names on white pieces of paper.

The comments reverberated like an echo – the same message kept coming back. All of us need to work against this common enemy. This is our problem. It could happen to anyone. It could happen to you. The same message kept coming back. The long line of names on the quilt forced an even more painful memory. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this eulogy.

The blue sky and gentle wind conceived the backdrop for confusion. Beautiful days aren’t made for memories like this. I thought of gloomy skies and torrid winds. I thought of the bitterness of death stirring uncontrollable moans of Black mamas in a church packed with a troubled community. I imagined the sound of a Black gospel choir singing “Precious Lord, take my hand.”

I saw blue skies, felt a gentle wind, and heard the mingling of white and Black voices troubled by incessant death. I felt the lure of distancing preventing the breakthrough of new possibilities. My imagination captured the explosive bang of bullets. My prayers sought the refuge of a community unwilling to surrender to making this a normal memory.

Thirty-eight names on white paper.

Thirty-eight people killed in 2020. They have mothers and fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Some have children too young to remember the day their parent died.

It is easy to miss the story when pain owns the moment. The story isn’t a political agenda. It’s not the race of the victims, or the vicious cycle leading to their deaths.

It’s the making of a holy moment, with names on white paper escorted to an altar underneath the blue sky with a gentle wind. Its collective tears mingled like incense in a bowl lit in the presence of our sacred truths. Its naming a certainty deeper than death – our hope and faith in a world not known for this type of misery.

Thirty-eight names on white paper.

My prayer, no more paper.

 

 

The Rev-elution endorses candidates for mayor and city council.

It’s endorsement time! It’s endorsement time!

I know, it’s probably true no one really cares about what I think. This is the work left for Political Action Committees like the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, People’s Alliance and the Friends of Durham to figure out. The newspapers often chime in, with Indy Week mostly embracing whatever the People’s Alliance decides and the Herald-Sun doing their best to make a decision among those left after the great shakedown. That would be Mark Schultz, Cliff Bellamy and Greg Childress.

They all do a great job of picking among the candidates. This year has been more difficult due to the number of highly qualified and gifted people running for office. No matter what happens, Durham gonna be alright. You catch that? I got Kendrick Lamar on my mind today.

So, here I go. I couple of thoughts before I start.

Unlike some of the other endorsement list, I thought long and hard regarding how each person, if selected, impacts the chemistry of the city council. As much as credentials and public policy views impact the management of city government, and it does, Durham has learned tough lessons from the past regarding what happens when you place a Muhammad Ali personality in the ring with Joe Frazier.

Forgive my boxing reference. I’m still processing the beat down McGregor received from Mayweather. Just like that fight, the wrong group of people on the council will create a stir that mirrors the rope a dope followed by a shoulder roll. I based my decisions on gut stuff that church folk call the Holy Spirit. In many cases I may be wrong, but dang it, it’s my freaking list.

Drum roll please.

Mayor of the cool city

This one was hard to call.  I came close to simply rolling the dice to see what the end would be, but then the clouds opened to reveal the sun. Not really, but that’s what we preachers do. It’s important to paint a picture.

Thus, this came down to things beyond those credentials. I’ll begin with who I left out among the final two and why.

I like Pierce Freelon. I love his energy and passion. What I didn’t like was his sales pitch. It went something like this – vote for me because the average age in Durham is 33. We need representation on the council that reflects the views of Millennials. We rule the world. Step back old folks.

Okay, it’s gentler than that, but Freelon’s pitch made me feel like the old horse sent out to the pasture after losing too many races. My study of African religion has taught me to honor the views of the elders. They bring insight and wisdom nurtured through the years. Getting old isn’t a curse. It’s to be honored and respected for helping us look back and learn lessons while keeping both eyes on the prize.

I didn’t like being told to step aside. With that said, there is something about Freelon’s energy that helped me see beyond this election. I simply believe Durham’s political structure would limit Freelaon. I want to see him serve beyond the restrictions of local government. His voice and leadership seems to be bigger than Durham. Not sure where that is, but I hope we will experience what that means.

I endorse Farad Ali as Mayor.

Why -because he’s too good not to participate in our government. I hear you. I hear you. What does that make Steve Schewel – chicken feed? Oh no. I selected Ali because Schewel will remain on the council if defeated. My desire for both candidates led me to go with the one who won’t serve if defeated.

There’s a second part to this decision. I’m not willing to trust the newly elected city council with the selection of Schewel’s replacement.  This came to me after reading threads regarding the time it took for People’s Alliance to complete their endorsement process. I hear it was long and grueling. I’m not prepared for the heat in the room if the city council is forced to make that decision.

Call me a wimp, but, in my mind, it’s the best of all worlds. It can be argued that Schewel deserves being elevated to mayor after years of faithful service. I dig it. I really get that, but what a team.

Every time I fly in and out of RDU I see Ali’s smiling mug on the walls. He’s there glaring at people entering our region like a super hero positioned to protect us from the forces of evil. Okay, I’m doing that preacher thing again, but you get the point. Ali has established regional juice. Some progressives may not like what that means, but he brings credibility to the city in ways that continues the work of Mayor Bill Bell.

Again, those progressive hate that. There’s nothing like a series of private/public partnership to irk the souls of those baptized in white privilege. Make it go away! I get that, but it’s why I love the balance between the two.

What I love most about Schewel is his vision for affordable housing. It’s insightful. It’s creative. It’s a work of genius. Yeah, those are big words that puff Schewel up like the magic dragon. He has the plan that can work, and if not for what we would forfeit without Ali, he is my dude.

I’m sure you have questions. See me after class.

Let’s move on to Ward 1. 

This is the classic old school, new school battle. In this corner, we have Cora Cole McFadden. She’s from Durham and a graduate of NCCU. She has served in city government and has served as Durham’s Mayor Pro Tem. In this corner, we have DeDrena Freeman. She’s an up and coming superstar having served on the Durham Planning Commission. She has served as a member of the North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Board. Sure you right.

This is a case of finding what makes me feel good. Like Halle Berry in “Monster Ball”, there are times when you have to go with what feels like chemistry. For me, it’s about muscle memory. What feels good is a person on the council who remembers what Durham looked like before the hipsters showed up with enough cash to elevate the cost of downtown housing. By memory I mean more than life in the city before Bill Bell and the years after urban removal.

Youth on the council is important, but, given the radical changes we face, we need a person on the council who can talk about how we got here, the mistake we made and what needs to be done to overcome the damage.

Call me old school. I endorse Cora Cole-McFadden

Then came Ward 2. 

This is the toughest decision to make. Can we pick all of them? Why not? Okay, I have to decide.

I endorse Mark Anthony Middleton for reasons beyond where he went to divinity school  (Duke pride) or the fact that he’s my brother in ministry (preach Middleton). This is about the substance and spirit of his work. This is about working with the masses during a time when people are downright nasty related to how they talk about and engage with men and women of the cloth.

It takes more than a Bible and a bunch of charisma to do the work of ministry. No other profession comes close to mimicking what it means to be a politician. If you don’t believe me spend some time at a church business meeting. Help me Jesus.

But, more than Middleton’s calling and practice of faith, this is about the hard work he’s doing in promoting justice, peace and understanding. That’s hard work given how new jack revolutionaries view grassroots mobilization. That’s a chat for a later day, but let me clearly state they can’t handle the truth.

Among the others, John Rooks is doing the darn thing. He is giving his time and money in support of residents in McDougald Terrace. His heart is in the right place. He deserves this, but it’s his work with law enforcement that shifted the scale in the direction of Middleton.

He organized monthly meetings, along with Delbert “Deej Kraze” Jarmon, to advance communication with local police. I attended the meetings early on, but felt they became more of a public relations campaign for the police department than an authentic space to discuss legitimate concerns with law enforcement. I began to sense sentiments that negate the voice of the Black Lives Matter movement. You know what that means. I ain’t got no time for that.

I see promise in Levon Barnes. I told him a setback is a setup for a comeback. Well, not in those words, but expect him to return with the fury of a resurrection.

Ward 3 was surprisingly easy for me. 

It came down to the battle of the legal minds. I respect the work of Don Moffitt; but the black women running this time pushed him to the side like grandmamma used to do when she gave me the hand.

Vernetta Alston is impressive. What disturbs me about Alston is that catch phrase – progressive. In Durham, it’s used like a weapon. It often implies a white agenda that negates the significance of black progressive ideology. Put another way, white people in Durham think they out-progressive black progressive. It’s a point that drives me over the edge.

When I hear Alston say progressive I think of views that reflect a labeling of progressive that needs to be balanced by black progressive views. When white progressive is construed as right progressive, black progressive views take a black seat in defining movements that move poor black people in the direction of progress.

It’s the reason I failed to endorse Moffitt. In many ways, Alston is Moffitt in black, queer embodiment. That’s a good thing, but, for me, it gets at the core issue of chemistry that advances causes beyond the People’s Alliances assumptions regarding a progressive agenda.

Shelia Huggins brings the balance that makes me feel good. Like Alston, she’s an attorney who has jumped into the fray of doing public service. She has the right stuff needed to process through all side of arguments placed on the table. She’s is engaged enough not to become the puppet candidate of a particular PAC. I see her as a mediator willing to do the right thing, not because of pre-assigned labels of what it means to be a Durham progressive, but because of the data placed before her by staff and the conversations coming from all sides of the position.

I did it!

I see this as a celebration of the great work done by past council members. Schewel and McFadden are the link to the past. Middleton and Huggins are the future of Durham.

With that said, thanks to all who ran. All of you rock. Some I didn’t mention here, but I got love for all of you.

Well, all but Sylvester Williams. I can’t give a shout out to a minister who opposes gay rights. Not on my watch.

To the rest of you, nothing but love for you and what you do for my city.

BULL CITY!