Last night was a night of many negative and terrible things. Most tragic, a young black man, VonDerrit Myers Jr., was shot and killed by an off-duty St. Louis City police officer. This is the fifth officer-related shooting this year, all of the victims black men under the age of 31.
We are at a dangerous time as a region, and that is frightening. But danger also holds our attention. We are a community ... and in many ways a nation ... at attention right now, and that is good. There will not be change unless we hold attention and keep us all in that place of uncomfortability. We cannot rush to peace.
That said, as a region, we need a container in which we can do this work. A container that will hold and allow enough uncomfortability and even threat of danger to hold our attention and to effect conversion.
As I stood on Shaw Blvd. last night -- called there to be a presence of prayer and peace -- and watched protesters smashing police car windows, and as two sets of gunshots went off, I thought to myself: "This is beyond peacekeeping. There is no way this ends well."
I was wrong. I am so grateful that I was wrong. As tragically as the evening began -- with the death of a young man and an officer forever changed as anyone is when we take another life -- the night into this morning did not end in tragedy. And so as all the things that were wrong about last night are being necessarily chronicled, I want to stop and ask why things didn't end in tragedy. And when I do, even on this rainy day where we are so aware of loss, I believe there is hope.
So what happened? Three things.
First, the young leaders of Millennial Activists United, the women and men who have been protesting on S. Florissant, stepped up. They organized. They kept the crowd in that place of unpeaceful and nonviolent action that is so difficult and so necessary. They did not back down and they helped the crowd authentically express their rage and pain without violence.
Second, the police showed restraint toward the protesters. They gave space. They did not make mass arrests or brutalize the protesters. They acted in ways to contain but not escalate.
Third, the clergy found our lanes to drive in. We recognized that first, last and always what we bring is our charge to gather the community in prayer. We prayed with the boy's parents. After the crime scene was opened up, we gathered in prayer around where he lay and reclaimed the ground. Then we split into two groups with some going with the protesters and supporting the MAU leaders and others of us (myself included) going to the morgue to be with the father as he identified the body and provide prayer and pastoral support there.
Each group -- the protesters, the police and the clergy -- had a sense of what there purpose was and how to do it well. And as awful as last night was, and although there were certainly missteps in each of those groups, that is eventually what happened.
And that gives me hope.
We are living in a place of negative trust -- where there is not only a lack of trust of one another but active belief that the other is lying whenever they speak, active distrust of the validity of the experience of the other.
This negative trust developed over decades and it will take a long time to build a positive trust that very well may never have existed before. It will take a willingness of all sides to meet and have honest expressions of difficult experiences, facts and emotions. IT will take a commitment to a process of extended Truth as a road to eventual Reconciliation, a commitment to holding ourselves and each other in a position of profound, nonviolent uncomfortability.
A child is dead. A man must have his taking of a life of a child on his soul for the rest of his life. Regardless of the facts of the case, this is a tragedy. But on this gray, rainy day, there is still hope. We as a St. Louis region have a gargantuan task ahead of us -- but with God's help, working together and being guided by each of our better angels, I believe we will be equal to it.
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| Photo courtesy of Lawrence Bryant, St. Louis American |
That said, as a region, we need a container in which we can do this work. A container that will hold and allow enough uncomfortability and even threat of danger to hold our attention and to effect conversion.
As I stood on Shaw Blvd. last night -- called there to be a presence of prayer and peace -- and watched protesters smashing police car windows, and as two sets of gunshots went off, I thought to myself: "This is beyond peacekeeping. There is no way this ends well."
I was wrong. I am so grateful that I was wrong. As tragically as the evening began -- with the death of a young man and an officer forever changed as anyone is when we take another life -- the night into this morning did not end in tragedy. And so as all the things that were wrong about last night are being necessarily chronicled, I want to stop and ask why things didn't end in tragedy. And when I do, even on this rainy day where we are so aware of loss, I believe there is hope.
So what happened? Three things.
First, the young leaders of Millennial Activists United, the women and men who have been protesting on S. Florissant, stepped up. They organized. They kept the crowd in that place of unpeaceful and nonviolent action that is so difficult and so necessary. They did not back down and they helped the crowd authentically express their rage and pain without violence.
Second, the police showed restraint toward the protesters. They gave space. They did not make mass arrests or brutalize the protesters. They acted in ways to contain but not escalate.
Third, the clergy found our lanes to drive in. We recognized that first, last and always what we bring is our charge to gather the community in prayer. We prayed with the boy's parents. After the crime scene was opened up, we gathered in prayer around where he lay and reclaimed the ground. Then we split into two groups with some going with the protesters and supporting the MAU leaders and others of us (myself included) going to the morgue to be with the father as he identified the body and provide prayer and pastoral support there.
Each group -- the protesters, the police and the clergy -- had a sense of what there purpose was and how to do it well. And as awful as last night was, and although there were certainly missteps in each of those groups, that is eventually what happened.
And that gives me hope.
We are living in a place of negative trust -- where there is not only a lack of trust of one another but active belief that the other is lying whenever they speak, active distrust of the validity of the experience of the other.
This negative trust developed over decades and it will take a long time to build a positive trust that very well may never have existed before. It will take a willingness of all sides to meet and have honest expressions of difficult experiences, facts and emotions. IT will take a commitment to a process of extended Truth as a road to eventual Reconciliation, a commitment to holding ourselves and each other in a position of profound, nonviolent uncomfortability.
A child is dead. A man must have his taking of a life of a child on his soul for the rest of his life. Regardless of the facts of the case, this is a tragedy. But on this gray, rainy day, there is still hope. We as a St. Louis region have a gargantuan task ahead of us -- but with God's help, working together and being guided by each of our better angels, I believe we will be equal to it.
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