"The issue is not whether our writing (or speaking, statements, resolutions) will be political. If we are silent, our silence is political. If we write our writing is political."
From Patricia Schneider, of Amherst, Massachusetts, a former Methodist/United Methodist. A well-known writer and teacher of writers.
I'm returning to my numbered musings:
11. Many of us in our prayer lives have remembered the death of Trayvon Martin and his family and George Zimmerman and his family, as different as the last few weeks have been for them. I am certain that UMC Bishops and the General Conference, particularly because of their meeting in Florida, will speak in public ways, pastorally and prophetically, about how what took place in Sanford, touches all of us. How can any of us avoid addressing the implications for the so-called "Stand Your Ground" legislation as it can affect the lives of all of us, no matter where we live? And, The United Methodist Church, more so than any other Church body, can interpret why the shooting of Trayvon Martin had such a particularly painful and negative impact upon African Americans; as parents, as men and boys, as families and as a community.
We are not in a "post-racial time" because the memories of verbal and physical violence, past and present, directed at black males, young and old, are, or ought be, very present in all of us. Read the rest of this entry »
