As we head into the weekend, let me give you three pieces to read, all on rather different subjects, but all important to us, as Christians and as civic-minded folk.
First up, read J. Peter Nixon, who recounts last night, in Oakland:
. . . there I was, making a last minute decision to remain in downtown Oakland at a time when many (white) commentators were convinced the place was about to explode in civil unrest.
I wish I could tell you it was an act of heroic virtue. The truth is that I was seized by something outside myself, an irresistible prompting of the Holy Spirit. I just couldn’t muster the energy to fight against it and keep my legs moving toward that gate. [...]
My first destination was the Cathedral, which stands next to my office building.
Then check out Benjamin D. Wiker’s Anti-Federalists, the Oil Spill, and the Catholic Church; the title pretty much gives you the tease.
Finally, the third part of Timothy Dalrymple’s look at the Tea Party: Is the Tea Party Racist? I wanted to write about this myself today (and about Nixon’s piece) but time has not permitted.
Also of interest: Family of Butchered Catholic Teacher Forgives His Attackers.
Christianity takes one to some surprising places.
Related:
Bruce Kesler: Demonization Does You In
Forgive me if I am little impressed with what comes across to me as rather proudful boasting by Nixon, complete with the requisite smearing of those who left the city as being racist and lacking in Christian charity.
I won’t attribute the actions of those who did leave to the Holy Spirit, but neither will I attribute them to something evil, and will simply note that two of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom and counsel. Given the riots that attended the previous shooting, and given past riots in prior legal cases, and given the explicit and implicit threats of violence leading up to the verdict, any reasonable person of prudence would think it wise to get out of the way. Indeed, since riots and violence did break out, it seems that the people were vindicated.
And, no, the violence was not inflicted by Tea Party activist, but largely by the usual crowd of leftists, who frequently look for any excuse to go smashing shops and burning cars and looting, as well as a good measure of race baiters.
I didn’t watch the trial, and didn’t hear the evidence, apart from the defendant’s claim that he thought he was reaching for his taser. I think that a rather preposterous claim myself, but it was a jury of Oakland residents, liberal Oakland, who apparently credited him. So before Nixon goes indicting those who left the city, and accusing them of white flight, he ought to reflect on the fact that it was Oakland’s own citizens who brought this about.
[I admit that Nixon's tone did grate a little--the suggestion that fleeing the city had more to do with racial distrust than actual history is certainly there, and yes, it is an assumption that is unnecessarily provoking and perhaps self-congratulatory (or maybe it's a sentiment that cannot help but sound thus). But if you can get beyond it, the sincerity and real challenge to all of us is still something that I believe is worth nothing and pondering. Yes, there is "history" that would make people--not unreasonably--fear for their safety. But on the other hand, we are called to be more than flee-ers, and to submit all things to prayer, trusting that all things work to the glory of God. And that is what I took out of that piece. I still remember Robert F. Kennedy's extemporaneous remarks at the death of Martin Luther King, and how they were received. -admin]
I read the piece on the butchered professor in Kerala, India with great interest and alarm. It was done by the members of the religion of peace of course. I worry that that will now begin happening here too in the near future. I cried and cried thinking of the horror he and his sister the nun, Mary Stella went through. After reading the Old Testament all year, the scourge of Islam just makes more sense. God allows us to get our behinds kicked and bad when our cultures deviate from his defined path. But I find it terrifying to be living in it and feel like the helpless poor in biblical times. May God help us and have mercy on us. And may God bless this professor’s family for stating publicly their forgiveness for the attackers. You sure won’t hear THAT coming from the religion of peace. I prayed that God would heal his emotional wounds. I cannot imagine the savagery and the brutality he underwent. I know we are supposed to submit all things to prayer as you say, Anchoress, but it does not diminish my feelings of fear much at all. Esp when I see the guy in the White House doing all he’s doing…ug. Sorry. My spake on a bleak Friday.
When I attended the DC Tea Party last September 12, I saw patriotic people from all walks of life, and all colors of the rainbow. I stopped to talk to older people who had ridden buses for hours to get there. They were more upset with Congress than they were with Obama (at least back then), and they were horrified at the loss of jobs, the increase in taxes that will really hit in January, and the health care monstrosity that is being shoved down our throats whether we want it or not. We were an orderly group of people…trash was picked up, nobody was rioting in the streets, people were laughing and having a good time. I stopped (as did several others that I saw) to thank the police who were standing guard…I asked all of the ones I talked to if the group was behaving and was told it was the best group ever to come to DC to march for anything. I get irritated with people who want to label God-fearing, Constitution-loving, law-abiding citizens as racists.
Re: Kesler, I was wondering if I was sufficiently “omineized” until I read the article.
Apparently, it is just a case of Friday Fat Fingers. Been there.
Have a great weekend
My mistake — the trial and jury were in Los Angeles.
Elizabeth, thanks for the link and thanks to both you and Bender for the feedback. If it came across as self-congratulatory or lacking in charity, I apologize. It was meant as a series of impressions, not a well thought out philosophical argument.
As to the “white flight” comment, all I can say is that this is what it felt like. I wasn’t trying to peer into people’s souls. It was a sea of largely white faces surging toward cars and trains in order to leave a largely black and brown city because of fear of violence. Even if you grant–in light of subsequent events–that people were acting prudently, it just didn’t feel good.
Another story from last night that inspired me was that the owner of Western Christian Books in downtown Oakland-just a couple of blocks from 14th and Broadway–refused to board up his windows and broadcast on a local Christian radio station throughout the night. To me, that was an enormously powerful act of Christian witness.
At some point, living the Gospel requires the assumption of some degree of personal risk. Jesus talked a lot more about carrying the cross than he did about personal safety. I think that just has to weigh on how we think about these things.
A final comment. The jury was not an Oakland jury. The trial was moved to Los Angeles and the resulting jury contained no African-Americans. Again, you can make all kinds of arguments for why this was justified, but at a “gut” level it’s really difficult.
God bless,
Peter
Although I’m now in the D.C. area, I’m originally from Michigan.
Ever been to Detroit?
You drive around, see some beautiful buildings. Or, at least what were once beautiful. You can tell that it was once a vibrant, thriving town.
But now it is Hell. Why? Because Detroit died in the 1967 riots. Sure, it was one of the walking dead for a while, but now it is a rotting corpse. After the riots, people moved out. Those businesses that had been burned to the ground didn’t bother to rebuild, and still-intact businesses moved out. Grocery stores, gone. Banks, gone. Restaurants, gone. Nothing left but strip-joints, liquor stores, and check-cashing rip-off places.
And to top it off, Detroit kept electing Coleman Young, who proudly told whites to get the hell out of the city. So you had blacks hating the whites, and whites hating the blacks. A vicious, hateful place.
Because of the riots.
Yeah, some people stayed. And became crime victims for their trouble. Saw their unemployment levels skyrocket. Those that were foolish enough to stay saw their $150,000 homes plummet in value — not merely to $100,000, but down to around $20,000. You can even buy houses in Detroit for $1,000!
The people who left Detroit and left Michigan generally (me included) are not the cause of that state sinking into the abyss. It was the rioters, the race baiters, the liberal entitlement mentality. They killed Detroit and Michigan.
Meanwhile, guys like Nixon are wagging their fingers and tsk-tsking, not the thugs, not those who seek to destroy, but those who only want a little peace. Sure, seeing as it is Oakland, they might all be a bunch of hypocritical white libs themselves, but none of them should have been expected to stick around to watch the mob smash windows and throw rocks.
They are not the ones to point fingers at, and Nixon does not deserve any pats on the back. The iconic Rodney King years ago said those famous words, “Can’t we all just get along?” Many people laugh at him and what he said. But he said it better than the likes of Nixon ever will.
And those mobs and thugs would do well to heed Rodney King’s words. It is riots and mini-riots like these that kill cities like Oakland. Just ask Detroit.
Showing anything other than sympathy to those fleeing a riot is, at best, stupidity. Staying is better only to the extent Nixon is endangering only himself.
Regards.
Detroit was going downhill well before the riots in the 1960s. The riots might have sped things up. The new mayor seems to be more professional than some in the past. There needs to be much more cooperation between Detroit and the suburbs. Other things that need to be done include, of course, more jobs, reduction in crime, better schools, and better transportation in the metropolitan region.
Peter, I’m a bit puzzled; you say that, even though their actions were prudent, the white faces fleeing that night didn’t “feel good”. Why is that? Why would you feel anything other than sympathy (as Sarah Kuvasz asks)? Riots are deadly, whites, as well as Orientals, have, sadly, been the targets in them before; this is just a fact. Were they supposed to stay and risk being beaten up, maybe even killed, so your gut level could feel better about it all?
Feelings are usually the worst things to base judgments on.
[Except that our guts are often precisely where the Holy Spirit lobs a directive, and so we cannot lose touch with following our instincts and "feelings" too. I understand the anxiety that accompanied that verdict, and why people (all sorts of people, not merely whites) would want to get away from a city that feels like a powderkeg that has been ignited by outside agitators bent on mayhem. But I also understand, and applaud, Nixon's following his gut. Times are difficult; we are all feeling insecure about many things and fear is sadly becoming a primary companion on our journey. But as Christians we're called to NOT be afraid, and further, to embrace the reality that at some point our role will not be to do more than simply be herded anywhere, or to act in haste and panic. If we cannot hear the calling of the Spirit, we'll be too inclined toward duck-and-covering when we need to be audacious and brave. - admin]
That’s right, Sarah!
Also, from the sound of it, it seems like a lot of the rioters were with the anarchists—a bunch of mostly white young men, from prosperous backgrounds, with a nihilist, Marxist agenda. In their hatred of capitalism, they’ll spare neither white nor black, and sticking around for the riot just offers them more targets to attack.
Peter, for all we know, any blacks on the jury, or even an all black jury, might have come up with exactly the same verdict this one did! It’s really better not to go overboard on “gut level” thinking about this sort of thing; we don’t know what would have happened, and it’s best not to make assumptions.
And I suspect the anarchists, and outsiders, would have wanted to riot no matter what the verdict—because that’s what they do!
I read Nixon’s piece – twice – and I didn’t get the same impressions as my colleague Bender. (I also have no experience of late 20th century Detroit)
Nixon’s piece read to me more as “Here’s what I experienced, here are my impressions, and they give me pause to think.” He also gives witness to how his Catholic (I assume) informed conscience leads him to act.
I take his essay as no more – but no less – than that.
“The people who left Detroit and left Michigan generally (me included) are not the cause of that state sinking into the abyss. It was the rioters, the race baiters, the liberal entitlement mentality. They killed Detroit and Michigan.”
The economy of most of Michigan was fine until the last ten years. Michigan’s economic problems is mostly related to the auto industry – if you will, some bad decisions by auto executives and unions.
Would you have any thoughts or comments on this, Elizabeth ?
link
I’m usually a reader, not a commenter, but this one hit home. I’m afraid I don’t understand the disparagement of Nixon as boasting or finger-wagging. I read his post as describing his process of trying to listen to the prompting of the Spirit, not as blaming others.
A few of the above comments seem to make the same mistake made by some media outlets of confusing the rally and the riot. The rally and protest proceeded peacefully, partly because the organizers had worked with police ahead of time to do their best to keep it that way. I think the presence of people like Nixon helped too. Violence may be contagious, but so is non-violence. I’ve copied an excerpt from the local paper below describing women who literally put their bodies on the line for peace.
The rioting and looting didn’t start until after dark, after people like Nixon had vacated. His comment above described the actions of a Christian bookstore; other articles described a local church also exercising the ministry of presence.
What might have happened after dark if more people committed to calm and non-violence had stayed? The outside agitators would still have tried to stir up trouble, and there still would have been people hurt and property damaged. But that presence might have been powerful.
To be clear, I’m not criticizing those who left — but wondering what if? Part of the Christian challenge is to look for those “what ifs,” to be open to times when the Spirit moves us to go above and beyond, to take the risk of physically embodying our beliefs.
(I’m one of those who left, which makes that “what if” particularly haunting. Not a sense of guilt, but perhaps an opportunity lost.)
From the Contra Costa Times blog:
A few minutes ago, there was a tense standoff between police in riot gear and protesters at 12th Street and Broadway. Then some Oakland women got between the protesters and police and calmed down the crowd, telling them violence is not an appropriate form of protest.
“As parents we have got to get out here and show our children how to do this the right way,” said Sheila Rischer, a 40-year-old longshoreman from Oakland. “This is my responsibility,” she said of why she got between the police and protesters. “Let’s do it the right way and be positive.” Her efforts worked, at least for the moment, as the crowd dispersed and moved back toward 14th Street and Broadway where the peaceful rally continued.
link
See also the SF Chronicle picture at:
link
Anchoress, I don’t think you can blame outside agitators for the planned riot. Instapundit linked to a great photo-journal of the riot planning. It is clear that local blacks were as keen to instigate demonstrations as the white anarchists, and were, in fact irritated that the “outsiders” were intruding on their turf. Based on the pre-verdict propaganda, it’s pretty clear that jury intimidation was intended. Not just jury intimidation, but intimidation of the entire system of justice.
I’ll have to read more, but I did see at least one picture of a masked youth sticking his boot through a plate glass window. Looked like well-planned violence to me.
[Would you have a link to any of that? I'd be interested in seeing it -admin]
Follow the link embedded in Glenn’s comment for the pre-riot intimidation prep.
link
[Found in the spam filter, because it had an unembedded url. Once again, when comments contain an unembedded url they will, more often then not, go into the spam filter, and if I am not inclined to go wading through there to find valid comments, they will be lost. Please avail yourself of this very simple tutorial on how to embed urls, if you do not want your comments lagging or accidentally trashed. -admin]