#DREAM4JUSTICE and collective striving with my friends

Monday, we all met at the #DREAM4JUSTICE march at 110^th and Lennox, most all my friends.  MLK day always reminds me of our interconnectedness.  We all need each other, he reminded us.  We are all interconnected n a web of mutuality. 

injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, he reminded us.

We came to celebrate MLK, interconnection, and to and remind ourselves of that collective striving. 

#DREAM4JUSTICE manifests Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream. We are calling you, family, to take this day to stand for justice in our communities, our city, and our country--in the legacy and memory of Dr. King.

#DREAM4JUSTICE

Monday, January 19, 2015
12PM
110th & Lenox

#DREAM4JUSTICE

On Monday, we will march alongside our elders, youth, community members, families, activists, students, and clergy to #DREAM4JUSTICE in 2015! Will you join us?

#DREAM4JUSTICE

MLK would have probably come to the demo with the bike bloc.
He knew bikes are vehicles for social change. 

Erik McGregor always takes the best pics.

We ran into Keegan.

And then the bike bloc showed up.

And picture the homeless and the RMO.

And the RMO.

And then Ron and Rita and so many others.

And Eric and Kim.

And LAK and Alex and so many other friends.  At some point, we started making new friends. Everyone talked about why we were there.  

i asked this woman why she was at the action.  She told me about the police locking up her mother when she called for the police for help against a developer encroaching on their family plot in her home in Oklahoma. Tears began to flow down her face as she recalled the humiliation of watching her family endure their treatment at the hands of the police.  Her twelve year old brother tried to intervene, grabbing one of the cops.  All these years later, she has not talked about the incident with her brother.  She recalled another occasion when the police confiscated her driver’s license, locker her up, and told her it was suspended, asking for cash to get it back.

“I kept asking them, ‘Are you Christian, cause this is wrong. I tell my students to believe in the system. But what you are doing is discouraging me from telling them that.”
The next day, the DMV noted her licence was in good order.  The police had been lying. 

And so two generations removed from the great migration, many have started to ask, how has it gone?  Lynching was not that long ago.  And the wounds are still there.  Below her tears was a story, a wound so many in the crowd of thousands still quietly endure.

We are still left with police and real estate agents, hospitals and schools, which do not treat everyone equally. Countless institutions further income inequality, racial, and economic hierarchies. But we are pushing forward, pushing to do more with this democracy, collectively pushing. And we are getting to know each other, to talk, share space, and hear each other's stories. We talked about how lovely it was to see everyone out supporting each other. 

And so we talked and walked.  Maybe we don’t need as many police, Alex noted. 

Walking down Lexington, an elder started to dance to Steve Wonder’s 'Happy Birthday.'  Number two and I started dancing with her.

The action came alive when we started dancing, noted number two.  

MLK days a day to celebrate, she reminded us.

And a day to push to move forward through history.

And so many are doing so. So many more are carrying the names  of those lost n the streets. We no longer have a KKK.  But the police keep on killing with impunity.  Yet, the worlds changing.  We are all changing.  And remembering.

Stacy Lanyon

Dream for Justice, January 19, 2015 Harlem, NY ©Stacy Lanyon — with Benjamin Heim Shepard.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REMAIN SILENT
After the March
#CarryTheNames
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Grand Central Station, NYC 
Monday, January 19, 2015, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm 
Signs will be provided 

Together, in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we will continue to raise our voices during this "winter of resistance", calling for justice, calling out these names - Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones, John Crawford, Akai Gurley, Shaniqua Proctor, Mike Brown, along with so many others. As part of the national call to action to #ReclaimMLK, we will carry the memory of over 170 people, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., brutalized by the tyranny of violence, perpetrated in a country where racism and police brutality are pervasive. We will hold their names high for the world to see. We will read their stories aloud for all to hear. 

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Again and again, we "catch our breath" and demonstrate our collective outrage, as one grand jury after another refuses to indict police officers for murder of unarmed civilians.

Our path is clear. In our moral certainty we continue to stand in solidarity with those in resistance in New York City, in Ferguson and elsewhere, who fight for justice for the countless precious lives of their loved ones, tragically lost but not forgotten. 

Click here to read Kenneth Chamberlain Jr's experience carrying his father's name at the January 5-6, 2015 #CarryTheNames.
http://blackwestchester.com/2015/01/08/winter-of-resistance/

National Call To Action: #ReclaimMLK
http://fergusonaction.com/reclaim-mlk/

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." 
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Stan Williams 

Die-in happening right now. #dreaming4justice — atBloomingdale's NY 59th St.