Statement on Charleston Church Shooting

I was asked to write a statement concerning the church shootin in Charleston, South Carolina. Here it is: It is with great sympathy and heartfelt love that our hearts go out for the victims, survivors and families of the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting. As people of faith, we stand understand, that the black church and pastor, historically, means a great deal to individual lives, the community and the shaping of American values. When the sanctity of coming together for prayer is threatened, due to the ever-present hand of racism, it’s time to come together with one voice that will not accept this behavior from any racist or bigot in our God-fearing society. In 1963, America experienced the bombings of 4 little black girls in Birmingham, Alabama. This America, never thought that she would be in grief over the same stupidity and insanity again. Just yesterday, the police was called and reports were given that shots were fired into a church in Memphis, Tennessee. The African American community is being attacked. We are being attacked from racist police officers, who have chosen that black lives don’t matter. We are being attacked from politicians, who choose to place more money in the budget for corrections than for education and job training. We are being attacked from judges that sentence the maximum sentences and see our community as less that human. We are being attacked from a system that teaches white America that everything Black is wrong and that we are no more than a detriment to the success of this great country.