Voting, participation the answer to violence
It’s time to wake up. Aug. 30 was another day and another shooting; this time a 7-year-old was one of the victims. This is not who we are as people. It is not the legacy we want for our children. No child should have a bullet wound as part of their life’s story. We must expect more for ourselves and for each other. The violence must stop. Black Lives Matter!
While there are myriad issues affecting our community — miseducation, inadequate health care, unequal justice, poverty and the list goes on — violence is not the answer. The wounding and killing of one another doesn’t serve to remedy any of the ills that are before us. In our anger and rage with unjust systems and discriminatory practices, we cannot turn on one another. Our fight is not against each other. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkest of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,” states Ephesians 6:12.
We must break the chains on the anchors that have held us down. No one person has all the answers to what is happening to our people but, collectively, we have the ability and the skill to see ourselves out of any situation. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We have the power to:
■ Register and vote
■ Complete the 2020 Census
■ Provide input on the recommendations of the City of Albany Policing Reform and Reinvention Collaborative
■ Participate in the monthly school board and common council meetings
■ Join a community program promoting positive growth in our community
Debora Brown-johnson
President Albany NAACP