Eugene Dyszlewski – RI Future

At a meeting to plan a Rhode Island response to the killing of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the moderator, a black man, made the point that many in his community feel these deaths – of people they don’t know who live far away – as personally and intensely as they feel the death of a cousin or a friend.

“White people,” he said, “don’t understand that.”

This is true. None of us truly understands the day to day prejudice experienced by people of color in our country absent actually experiencing it. This solidarity of experience escapes most, if not all white people in this country. The bond created across time and distance by systemic oppression is intense, and personal.

I can feel some of this. When Trayvon Martin was murdered, he was about my son’s age. They both wore hoodies and both liked Mountain Dew and Skittles. I felt Trayvon Martin’s death acutely, but my reaction was blunted by my privilege. I didn’t then and don’t now fear for my son’s life the way parents of black children do. My son is white. I have the luxury of keeping my parental fear levels at the lowest setting.

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 015 — Steven Paré

“A part of us died last night,” said Providence Public Safety Commissioner Stephen Paré at a press conference Friday afternoon, “when five colleagues in Dallas, were shot and killed.”

Paré can acutely feel the deaths of police officers far away. He sees the police officers killed in Dallas as colleagues, and can certainly imagine the nightmare of losing five officers in Providence.

But the analogy ends there.

When police officers were murdered in Dallas, Governor Gina Raimondo called a press conference of police and community leaders well within 24 hours. Two United States senators offered words of calm and condolence. Flags were ordered to fly at half mast by government order.

No press conferences were planned for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. It took the death of police officers to do that. That alone signals our priorities as a culture.

Police can call for back up. They can get the National Guard and the full power of the United States military flown in if necessary. Police can attach bombs to robots and kill by remote control if necessary.

The unlimited force and power of the United States can be brought to bear against those who kill police officers, but when it comes to the extra-judicial murders of people of color by police…

… there is no back-up.

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 001 — Janelle organized a small protest in Kennedy Plaza Friday morning.

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 002 — Thirty feet from the protest PVD Police were arresting a black man.

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 007 — This woman berated the protesters. “All lives matter,” she said, “not just black lives.”

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 010 — Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was at Governor Gina Raimondo’s press conference.

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 011 — Reverends Eugene Dyszlewski and Donald Anderson

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 012 — Moira Walsh and son

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 013 — Governor Raimondo reiterated her call for the passage of justice reform and gun control legislation.

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 014 — Jim Vincent, Kobi Dennis, Jack Reed

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 016 — Steven O’Donnell

2016-07-08 PVD BLM Dallas 017 — Kobi Dennis

Here’s the full video from the press conference:

Religious Coalition for a Violence-Free Rhode Island 01 — Religious Coalition for a Violence-Free Rhode Island

We applaud President Obama for engaging in serious, reasonable conversation about gun violence. He is doing this on the heels of issuing an Executive Order to expand background checks for gun sales, something that Americans overwhelmingly support. However, his Executive Order only goes so far and there is more that needs to be done. The next steps require soul searching and honest conversation.

The President’s “Town Hall” meeting approach opens up the conversation in needed ways. Clearly, no one is advocating that the rights of Americans to possess a firearm be rescinded. Indeed, not all concerns will be solved with regulation. Smart gun or smart lock technology might be a better way to keep guns safely away from children. However, restricting access to guns for people with mental health issues and for criminals requires regulation.

Religious Coalition for a Violence-Free Rhode Island 02 — Rev. Eugene T. Dyszlewski

Most Rhode Islanders are not gun owners and many of us do not know some of the nuances of gun ownership and gun safety. For example, we may not know that 82 percent of teenage suicide by firearms involve guns left poorly secured or foolishly unprotected by members of their own families. On average someone being shot by a child, often a toddler, occurs twice weekly in America. Reasonable people believe that there is a solution to this problem.

As religious leaders, we know the carnage and the heartbreak that accompanies gun violence. We do the funerals. We provide the pastoral care to families during their moments of anguish. We want this needless and senseless violence to stop. We know of no religious tradition that defines freedom as unfettered license to do as one pleases. We join with the President and call upon all people of good will, particularly gun owners, to engage in serious, sensible conversation about gun safety.

Tag: Eugene Dyszlewski

Rhode Island’s response to Dallas defines our priorities

Religious Coalition for a Violence-Free RI on Obama’s Town Hall