Seasons Greetings. #Ferguson
(Photo: Jim Young/Reuters)
10:24 PM – 24 Nov 2014
X
X
X
X
DEFINE OBJECTIVITY.
Creating a reality + creating a spine for a narrative + creating truthiness = X
Amid Conflicting Accounts, Trusting Darren Wilson
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-grand-jury-weighed-mass-of-evidence-much-of-it-conflicting.html?_r=0
X
X
X
X
It takes moral courage to tell the multiplicity of complex truth.
x
x
x
Below are fragments/threads of email dialogue
and
shared on-line research
between my friend,
a brilliant Canadian CTV news reporter from Calgary,
and myself
10:27 pm CST 11/24/14 – 12:20 am CST 11/25/14
X
X
X
Remarks by the President After Announcement of the Decision
by the Grand Jury in Ferguson, Missouri
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/24/remarks-president-after-announcement-decision-grand-jury-ferguson-missou
X
X
X
X
A shot dead young man
left on the street,
uncovered,
to me, Janet,
was the pith.
X
X
X
Winding roads with walls of rationalization.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/24/bob-mcculloch-ferguson_n_6215986.html
X
X
X
X
X
LET FERGUSON BURN.
Let it burn, and that will be the prevailing evidence of our verdict.
The magnanimous joy of being SEEN/APPEARING magnanimous.
This is true for the so-called contingency plans
created months before the Grand Jury’s verdict.
What contingency plans?
This is their contingency plan to a moral/racial/social justice virus?
Thank God they were not in command of the Ebola virus crisis.
And, yet, the deaths from this Ferguson virus
reflects an infrastructure of inhumanity.
This is pitiful and very, very shrewd strategy.
The shrewd maneuvering to show the world
that the “dominant” culture
is to show HOW
the “other” MUST be placed
into submission.
This LET IT BURN contingency plan
keeps us ALL
from a dialogue
that breaks through,
and
keeps everyone/ALL comfortable
in their
fixed
polarities.
THIS IS NOT MORAL COURAGE.
THIS IS:
X
X
X
WE.
X
X
TOLD.
X
X
THEM.
X
X
SO.
X
X
Yes!
And, THOSE people MUST submit
because they do NOT know
how to govern “their” impulses.
X
X
X
X
What happens to a dream deferred?
X
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
X
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
X
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
X
Or does it explode?
X
James Baldwin
X
X
X
X
The social media is now being used to exclaim:
FERGUSON BURNS!
In the beginning, the media was prohibited by “no fly over”
and now…
X
X
X
Was the anticipated violent “spectacle” broadcast
THE contingency plan?
X
X
THE HUMANITY PORTFOLIO: WHITE WASH Catherine L. Johnson 2013
X
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/fifteen-paintings-28-august-2013-the-humanity-portfolio-28-august-2013-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington-for-freedom-jobs-rev-dr-martin-luther-kings-i-have-a-dream-s/
X
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TWICE TO ENLARGE THE PAINTING ABOVE
X
X
X
X
To Kill a Mockingbird 2014.
X
X
X
HAVE RACE RELATIONS IMPROVED UNDER OBAMA:
http://www.gosanangelo.com/decodedc/have-race-relations-improved-under-obama-polls-show-scant-evidence-of-progress
X
X
X
THE RESPONSE TO THE VERDICT FROM MICHAEL BROWN’S FAMILY:
The Brown family in a written statement expressed disappointment, but made a plea for peaceful protests.
“Answering violence with violence is not the appropriate reaction,” the statement said.
“Let’s not just make noise. Let’s make a difference.
The family called on protesters instead to work toward requiring police officers to wear body cameras.
“We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions,” the statement said.
“While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change.
We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen. “
X
X
X
MORAL COURAGE
was the anchor
and
the call out
from the
UNARMED
slain child’s
family.
X
X
X
X
X
Practicing response rather than reaction.
We ALL breathe the same oxygen.
Yet, apparent and denied inequities are a testament
of the multiplicity of reality and lived truth.
X
X
X
There are benevolent inspired actions
rooted in social justice,
and,
on the other hand,
there is smug magnanimity
rooted in the practice/belief/power over mentality:
“Let THEM eat cake” .
X
X
X
X
X
There are people who have the courage
to see BEYOND
what their own lived experience is/has been
and the realized social inequities
inspire them to be
agents of social justice.
Hurricane lamps.
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
It’s a Wonderful World
Louis Armstrong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2RbFVRRtqI
X
We all know the actions Louis Armstrong made in September 1957.
The Day Louis Armstrong Made Noise
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/opinion/23margolick.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 
Leave a Reply