(Picture is of Poet/Activist Jillian Hanesworth – “The Revolution will be led by black women who are just tired enough to do it themselves.”)
Kathy Kelly reflects on weapons and systems white people use to protect their white privilege, recalling that Dr. King likened U.S. wars to “some demonic destructive suction tube.”
In her poem, “The Revolution Will Rhyme,” Buffalo Black Lives Matter activist Jillian Hanesworth writes about the movement for change we now see sweeping across the world.
“It will not be developed just to be displaced
Its focus will not be extracted and refocused or repurposed
And the burden of education and comfort will not be placed on the oppressed
While understanding and tolerance is gifted to the oppressor
You will not be able to binge watch the revolution
Rewinding the comfortable triumphs and fast forwarding through the hurt”
In strong, confident language, fueled by recognition of hurts and atrocities, Hanesworth calls on white people to ask themselves uncomfortable questions. How does our white privilege contribute to racism and oppression? How can we use our privilege to bring about systemic change?
Mindful not to repurpose or refocus Jillian’s words, I think we must move forward, urgently, to tackle systemic change. We must use our white privilege to insist on and secure decent schools, health care, housing and human rights, especially for those who’ve been most harmed by racial disparities and economic inequalities in the United States.
Where are the resources, the funding, to do this? I think it’s important to examine the so-called security U.S. people purchase through funding the U.S. military and demand redirection of these resources. Money entrusted to the Pentagon and a vast array of military contractors must be spent to meet human needs.
Maybe this series of questions could help. Could I ever imagine myself paying for materials to assemble Molotov Cocktails for use as weapons amid a conflict? Could I ever imagine myself funding a group of people known for burning residential areas? At a magnitude incalculably greater than purchasing materials for Molotov Cocktails, or burning one urban residential area, U.S. taxpayers fund weapons used to wage gruesome wars of choice in far-away places where civilians struggle with every-day hunger, thirst, and displacement.
Condemn arson? Yes, but scale up and whisper: Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Baghdad.
Imagine U.S. complicity with Saudi bludgeoning of Yemen’s cities, towns, and critical infrastructure and link that with construction, in Marinette, WI, of four Littoral Combat Ships which Lockheed Martin has arranged to build and sell to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis use these ships to blockade Yemen’s ports, causing even more starvation in a country on the brink of famine. Yes, the construction of the ships provides greatly needed jobs. But, are there other, better construction projects that privileged people could demand be given immediate priority in our war-torn world? Could Marinette’s engineers, designers, welders and builders work on projects that would help rebuild communities devastated by declining infrastructure and racist neglect within the United States?
Jillian’s poem says the revolution will be a complete overhaul, not just a quick fix. We should join her in settling for nothing less. White people who are among the privileged “haves” in our unjust society must look long and hard into the mirror of our privileged history. Why should people who already have so much be entitled to get more? And if we’re to learn how to live together without killing one another, how can we dismantle and repurpose the vast killing machine that protects our unfair white privilege?
June 2020
Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)
The 5pm Sat 5/30 event at City Hall today is not organized by the WNY Peace Center, nor do we know the organizers. We have not seen any indication that it’s organized or endorsed by any local groups. Moreover, trouble is expected in a number of different ways. Local leaders at Black Love Resists in the Rust are not endorsing and advising people not to go. We echo their advice.
We are organizing another Speakout on Ethical Peace Officers, details to be publicized on Monday. We work with determination to end racism, injustice, domination, and violence. #BlackLivesMatter #SayTheirNames #EnoughisEnough #Unite
We grieve with George Floyd’s family, and are outraged at the heinous crimes against people of color, including state-sponsored violence. This crisis must lead to substantive radical change in our racist institutions. No more excuses.
Below is our press release from Tuesday, shortly before the murder of George Floyd. We have yet to get a response from the Mayor or the BPD administration. We will proceed Monday with the planning.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Heron Simmonds 716-948-3577
Victoria Ross 716-931-3520
WNY Peace Center stmt & invite to Mayor & BPD to a Speakout on Ethical Peace Officers
WNYPC Statement, from the WNYPC’s Racial Justice Taskforce:
We at the WNY Peace Center are extremely alarmed at the recent video of two Buffalo Police officers repeatedly punching a captive man in the head, coupled with many terrible stories of aggressive, unreasonable, and/or racist behavior on the part of Buffalo Police Officers, as told by attendees at the Buffalo Police Advisory Board Meeting of 5/20/20.
We urge Mayor Brown, Commissioner Lockwood, and Deputy Commissioners Gramaglia and Lark to join us in a Speak-Out for Ethical Peace Officers, on June 9, 6pm or at a mutually agreed upon time. We invite you to come for an open and honest (virtual) discussion on standards of conduct, use of force, and DE-ESCALATION. How can we get to a police force that respects all citizens regardless of race or color? And a community that sees the police as a resource and not a risk.
We echo the numerous calls by Partnership for the Public Good, Voice Buffalo, and many others to suspend the officers without pay who engaged in the illegal and immoral behavior in the video. Those authorized to bear arms must be the least violent – not the most.
We work for a culture of peace. And we’ll only get Peace through Justice. We invite your participation.
WNY Peace Center’s Racial Justice Taskforce
————
What: Invite to a Speakout on Ethical Peace Officers
When: TBD; suggested June 9, 6pm, – or another mutually agreed upon date.
Where: On zoom
Who: Mayor Byron Brown, Commissioner Byron Lockwood, Deputy Commissioners Barbara Lark and Joseph Gramaglia, and the community are invited to a Speakout on Ethical Peace Officers
hosted by the WNY Peace Center and its Racial Justice Taskforce.
wnypeace.org ###
Dear Friends,
Thank you to those who attended the Annual Meeting on Saturday. We would also like to congratulate our newest board members! Please help us welcome them – you can find their details on our updated Coordinating Board page.
This week we would also like to highlight a few very important upcoming events:
– Tomorrow at 10AM, join the car action in Buffalo to call on the state legislature to reconvene and pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act! People in Rochester, Albany, Yonkers, NYC, and Long Island will be doing the same thing at the same time. The event will be streamed as a single, statewide event narrated by our own Jerome Wright. Please come in your car with members of your household; your presence will matter and it should be a fun chance to get out of the house to do something meaningful, safely. Please register at ly/HALTsolitaryMay6
– Tomorrow at noon, join PeaceJam in the first in this series of powerful (online) conversations hosted by the One Billion Acts of Peace Campaign and four Nobel Peace Laureates with young people from around the world to talk coping, taking action, and creating a vision for the future. Featured Laureates include: Jody Williams (USA, 1997), Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala, 1992), Leymah Gbowee (Liberia, 2011) and Shirin Ebadi (Iran, 2003). Register here (space limited).
– On Saturday, the Kings Bay Ploughshares 7 will speak with special guests Medea Benjamin, Code Pink co-founder, author, and global activist; Cornel West, Harvard Divinity School, author, activist, and social critic; and Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept co-founder, investigative journalist, and author. Moderated by Norman Soloman, RootsAction co-founder, author, and political columnist. The panel will discuss the need for civil resistance disarmament actions such as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, the continued build-up of militarism, and the destitute condition of our world before and during the pandemic. They will also speak on divesting military funding to serve human needs during COVID-19 and beyond. The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 are facing sentencing on May 28 and 29 for their nonviolent symbolic disarmament action at the largest nuclear sub-base in the world, on April 4th, 2018. Kings Bay Naval Station houses one-quarter of the US deployed nuclear weapons. Watch the webinar live on CODEPINK’S YouTube channel or via Zoom from 12-1PM.
Lastly, today is #GivingTuesdayNow! We cannot do this important work without you, and we truly appreciate all of your support. If you are able to contribute to our continuing work, please donate here.
Please see details and much more below, including special events this week, regularly scheduled events, campaigns, fundraisers, and more at wnypeace.org, on our Facebook page, Twitter (@wnypeace), and Instagram (@wnypeace)! *** And lastly, a reminder to pace yourselves – do only what you can without engaging in digital overload. No one call do it all. Let us know what kind of help you might need from the WNYPC; please feel free to reach out!
Peace, thanks, solidarity and yes – love.
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