Justice for the Jena 6
September 27, 2007 at 10:56 pm (murder, peace, students)
Tags: Color of Change, Jena 6, news, race, violence
… and peaceful resolution to the racial violence too real still today.
Mourning the loss of Chauncey Bailey
August 9, 2007 at 3:33 am (Chauncey Bailey, Oakland, journalism, language, murder, violence)
> Oakland:
Even more than Barry Bonds’ record slugging, Oakland has been rocked for the past week by the murder of Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the Oakland Post. The man who is claiming to have committed the murder called himself a “good soldier.” He has been linked to the Bay Area’s Your Black Muslim Bakery. It hasn’t been a good week for the bakery, getting busted by the health department, filing for bankruptcy, and being linked to a murder. The once-esteemed local institution is not what it once was. Bailey was targeted supposedly because of a story he was working on that would have exposed some of these problems. Of course, the assassination didn’t do much to hide these things, and rather revealed them for the whole city to see.
> Journalism:
Bailey’s murder shows just how dangerous journalism can be, even at home. Thank God for brave journalists.
> Violent Language:
Today, the Rev. Dr. H. James Hopkins of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church of Oakland wrote into the Oakland Tribune about language used by the young man accused of killing Chauncey Bailey. The man’s calling himself a “good soldier” only adds to this peculiar saga of the editor’s murder.
The Rev. Dr. Hopkins speaks some important words in relation to the man’s claim. Bailey’s accused killer has been associated with the community of the black Muslim bakery, but I think Hopkins’ words ring true across faith lines:
“It is imperative that every congregation and faith-based organization in our city rethink the way we use terms like soldier, warrior, army, conquer and battle. These militaristic terms are not helpful in teaching our people to be peacemakers. They have proved to be subject to misuse in our violence-plagued context.
“We need students of God, followers of God, and seekers of God - we can do without more soldiers of God.”
> Prayers:
For Bailey, for his fiancee, for his family, for his coworkers, for the bakery’s community, for the city of Oakland.
