I am amazed at the amount of cowardice that exists in our community. No doubt we are cowardly! I’m not being too hard.
Does anyone really believe that the system that continues to allow injustice and inequality is just going to sit back and let people oppose it without fighting back?
And they don’t have to come after you with their uniformed minions. They use everything at their disposal. They use their press, they send spies, they send provocateurs.
And sometimes they don’t have to send anyone; the oppressed are so used to their situation that they just voluntarily mess things up. An official murder has taken place and I suspect the power structure knows it. So the fight for Terrance Franklin is a just fight. It’s a fight for right!
It should be and should have been supported by every justice-loving human being in this locale and even nationally. The folks fighting for justice for Franklin have done an amazing job despite the demons and distractions that launched themselves at the effort.
Yet a lot of folks are turning their backs on the fight because of a lot of lame excuses, which at bottom are just that, cowardly excuses to make you feel good about sitting it out, yet again not doing the right thing, yet again not taking a stand.
It has been said that evil flourishes because good people do nothing. In Revelations, John says, “the cowardly” will be among those “condemned to the lake of fire.”
The committee has not asked folks to take a day off, or march 20 miles, or sacrifice 10 percent of their salary, or even spend a day in jail. No, all they ask is that you come to a rally listen to speeches stand in solidarity and march to express your displeasure, an hour or an hour-and-a-half at the most. And in expressing that displeasure maybe the power structure would be moved to do the right thing.
But no, we would rather be paralyzed and lulled into inactivity, suspicion and non-support by giving in to the lies, the innuendo the vicious prevarications of a few — apparently either unhinged, demon possessed or paid stooges — who never mean anyone well and whose own motives should be examined. You would have to be one of the three to just make up lies about people who have dedicated their lives to fighting for what’s right.
By the way, that’s not unusual in our community. We have a history of folks who God has given the spirit of courage and a call to commit their lives to fighting injustice, especially racism, and to call out the source of racism and classism this amoral and immoral political, economic, social system called capitalism. One would have to be unhinged, demon possessed, a paid stooge to attack big-hearted well-meaning young people and try to turn them against one another as one provocateur did in our organizing meetings.
Somebody even tried to get some of his friends to try to shut the committee down, because presumably there were too many people involved who didn’t know Terrance. In all my years of organizing I have never seen anyone use rumor, bribery, lies and innuendo to mislead young people. It brought to mind the efforts of the government’s Cointelpro operation in the 70s that destroyed the movement for real change in this country.
After all their efforts failed, one provocateur actually snatched the microphone at the last rally and told more lies about the family and disunity. The desperation and the low-down dirtiness and viciousness of the attacks by enemies of justice indicate that the committee must be on the right track. We are winning!
Speaking of the family, the father and the uncle and Franklin’s baby mother have been in full support of the actions of the group. In fact, some of the protest locations were actually suggested by the “family.”
No, not every cousin or brother has been active or even supportive. However, even if no one from the family supported the idea, it would still be right to stand up and say what happened to Terrance was wrong and that justice should be served. The fight against police brutality and police murder is bigger than Terrance.
And the idea that you can’t condemn what happened to him or organize for justice for him unless you knew him is a lie that could only come from demons or supporters of this system of injustice and oppression. Who among you would not want justice served if you or a loved one was murdered, even if it was the police?
The police and the forces that support their misdeeds will not win. The committee and its spirit lives on! The power structure and its stooges, its spies and its paid minions won’t win — they never win.
Stand with us and stand up for what’s right. Give up the fake excuses, pray for courage and stand with us!
Mel Reeves welcomes reader responses to mellaneous19@yahoo.com.
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I think part of the problem is no one knows when rallies a being held. There is an information gap for many people. I do not always get to the internet, or social media for information. I may not get to read my Spokesman Recorder for two weeks sometimes, I keep my paper though and I try to read all of the information to stay abreast of community issues. So how do we get around this information divide? How do we make sure everyone knows when and how they are needed, to take a stand against racist crimes inflicted on our people; and participate in what is going on in the community when access to the technology is limited and time an enemy. Door to door? Better Media sources? Increase or set regular Community meetings? We may need better access especially when there are physically disabled person’s that want to participate also but have limits. I am fighting a battle against poor programming, teacher’s and curriculum in the Mpls Public Ed System; with little or no help from other parents. So I know these feelings and thoughts you are having, I like you are wrestling with these feelings also about our oppressed people and communities.