Local officials and branch youth raise awareness to police violence
by S. Rotan Hale
All things considered, life has become more challenging on a global level like never before. We’re living in an information age unfortunately flooded with bad news.
With corruption at an all-time high, society continues to be plagued by an unprecedented number of challenges ranging from a global pandemic, gun violence, the unimaginable devastation from the record-breaking California wild-fires, the threat of war constantly looming, the age-old problem of racial injustice and the resurrection of Jim Crow in the post Obama age.
Such conditions have never been more saturated through the whole of society. Each in there own way continues to fuel the flames of social unrest and stifle the growth of humanity itself with grave consequences that darken the path forward.
As the Black mortality rate hits new highs, a local contingent of concerned citizens staged a rally to voice their concerns primarily focused on the rise of brutality from the powers that be and the tragedies thereof.
The local chapter NAACP and the county branch joined forces on the front line, this time rising up against the present-day massacre of unarmed Blacks at the hands of “officers of the law.”
The organization’s youth council led the proceedings to the theme “say their names” which the youth did as one after another member approached the mic.
Rianna Wilson, first VP, Youth Chapter gave a short synopsis of the case of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT nurse fatally shot in her apartment along with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker who was only wounded by Louisville, KY police officers during a botched narcotics raid.
The event held at the Martin Luther King Bridge, Sunday, Sept. 4 featured comments by several area heavy-hitters as Senator John Edwards, 11th District Delegate Sam Rasoul, Mayor Sherman Lea, Vice Mayor Joe Cobb and chapter president Brenda Hale.
Speaking of the pain brought on from the mistreatment of minorities, Mayor Lea used a quote from civil rights icon Jesse Jackson and urged the crowd to ‘“turn the pain into power.”’
He also emphasized the importance of voting as we approach a “presidential election like none the country has ever seen.”
“What ever happened to dying of natural causes,” asked Joe Cobb who proceeded to point to such atrocities as the Charleston SC church massacre (2015)–a shooting by a self-confessed White supremacist that killed 9 Black parishioners and injured 4. Cobb went on to mention a host of other cases that have ruthlessly taken Black lives in this modern-day racist plague that has so engulfed the Black community. Cobb magnified his comments naming a plethora of victims of this new age of racism that viciously festers unleashed.
“May their (victims) names and their lives become a beacon for justice. We are done with dying,” he boldly stated in closing.
One of the most moving speeches of the event came from Delegate Sam Rasoul, one of two Muslim members of the Virginia General Assembly. Rasoul delivered a rousing address that set the tone that in essence promoted the urgent need for justice in such polarizing times.
“For me growing up (in America as a Palestinian Muslim), I didn’t get to fully embrace my real name or culture,” Rasoul said. “My name is Salam, which means messenger of peace, but I became Sam to assimilate.”
Rasoul also tapped into the knowledge of Rev. Jesse Jackson and his foresight to establish the Rainbow Push Coalition (RPC)–an organization built on the idea that multi-cultural alliances can progressively thwart injustices and create social change in a system born of racism.
Rasoul said White people began to attend Jackson’s rallies in the 80’s and reasoned that there aren’t enough Black, Muslim, Asian, or LGBTQ Americans, etc to bring about real and lasting change therefore creating the “Rainbow” to the Push Coalition.
“Any injustice that is upon any of our communities, is upon us all,” Rasoul proclaimed. “Right now is the time for me to push some Black voices, to lift them up. Because when injustice comes against the Black community, the Black community is whose going to be there for me as an Arab Muslim American.”
Rasoul and his lofty convictions boldly speak of his allegiance to not just ethnicity but all humanity and the basic connection thereof.
Senator John Edwards placed heavy emphasis on the major premise of the United States Constitution that states “We the People.” He tied it to the right to vote and stressed the importance of voting during this highly charged presidential election. Without “We the People” there would be no democracy and that means you’ve got to vote and this year vote early,” he said. “If you don’t vote you have no voice.”
As chairman of the Judiciary Committee Edwards briefly informed the crowd of certain legislation presently under review by the Virginia Senate that directly effects issues of police reform as no-knock warrants and other tactics that have now been outlawed due to the increase in police violence.
“We at the Roanoke Branch NAACP stand here today heart broken once again as our Black brothers, sisters and children continue to die prematurely,” said Brenda Hale, organization president. “Their names are important to us. Their Black lives matter! I have spoken far to many times, in far to many places about modern-day lynchings of Blacks. 111 years later since the founding of the NAACP, we stand here confronted by a new form of modern-day lynchings… death by police brutality.”
Hale went on to press the importance of justice and referred to “Lady Justice” the iconic statue of the blind folded Greek goddess holding the scales of justice in one hand and sword in the other.
It is becoming increasingly evident that we now live in a world void of the true justice that is so necessary–blind justice and not the justice Hale went on to so courageously coin as “White Justice.”
