The recent announcement by city State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby was the appropriate action needed for the malicious acts perpetrated against Freddie Gray by those sworn to protect us, but I'm not ready to cheer. It was the appropriate action because it holds specific people responsible for the events that led to Freddie Gray's death in police custody. It was the appropriate action because it does not allow injustice to continue to run rampant. More importantly, it was the appropriate action because it calls everyone to a higher level of responsibility.
Blatant injustices of one organization or another have for too long led to finger pointing and casting blame on others. There is a faulty notion that this finger pointing somehow absolves the ones pointing of any responsibility to make a difference in our society. Finger pointers and blame casters feel justified because they think they are free of any responsibility because they are not contributing to the injustices like the supposed guilty organization or group of people. But finger pointers don't understand that their inactions through casting blame sometimes contribute to the culture of injustice and add extra fuel to the fire of injustice.
Dehumanizing people by labeling them becomes another form of finger pointing that further removes us from taking responsible action to address the dire needs of people. The riots and looting were cries of pain and anguish. Labeling people as anything other than human leads to a shallow, improper and false assessment of what was actually happening and the shallow assessments then become an inappropriate response because the response will not be relevant to the needs of the people.
Everyone is responsible for our current state of affairs and it is going to take the sincere efforts of everyone to make a difference. It is going to take the entire village. Our village is bigger than Edmondson Village or Charles Village. Our village is the entire State of Maryland. The village represents the sober minded, mature people who will bring together all of the necessary resources to root out injustice and every other social ill that plagues any part of the village so everyone within the village will have equal opportunity for success and advancement in our state. Just as we brought together the village of law enforcement (city, counties, state police forces and the National Guard) to restore calm in Baltimore City, we need to come together as a unified state who understands that through our collective efforts we can make our entire state a just and safe place to live. Until then, I'm not ready to cheer.
There is still plenty of work for everyone that needs to be done in every aspect of our village. From our homes, to our communities, to government, to religious organizations, to civil and fraternal groups there are some things that each can do to change the rampant culture of unmet needs and injustice.
I'm not ready to cheer because our homes need to become the first classroom where children learn civility, respect, manners, and proper decorum as well as educational things before they start school. I'm not ready to cheer because there is a school to prison pipeline that needs to be transforms into a pipeline that develops committed young people who are prepared to go to college or prepared with a trade or skill to move into an apprenticeship or trade school. I'm not ready to cheer because our businesses and employment sectors need to make sure working pays enough for employees sustain their families with the salaries they earn. I'm not ready to cheer because our civil, fraternal, and religious organizations need to develop plans to alleviate the pain of the people that are innovative, relevant and outside of normal operations, programs, and ministries.
The charges brought against the officers responsible for Freddie Gray's death brought a sigh of relief but I will only cheer when everyone commit to actions that will not allow this tragedy to be repeated.
Rev. Terry G. Thornton is pastor of Sweet Hope Free Will Baptist Church. His email is pastorthornton@hotmail.com.