Bay Ridge Socialists Get It Wrong
Sometimes people do things out of habit because it’s easy. When people are just on automatic: no one needs to think, make new plans or communicate because the old plan is “good enough.”
On Monday, January 15th, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Bay Ridge Socialists are planning a march and while their premise is new (that they are defending DACA), the march is still the same march that they did other years — which was ineffective and doesn’t promote solidarity in the community.
The Socialists invitation states: “For the past two years, Bay Ridge residents, neighbors, and allies have come together on Martin Luther King Day to honor the radical legacy of Dr. King by showing that hate has NO PLACE in Bay Ridge.” They have done this for two years and seen that it hasn’t been effective. You can’t walk around the streets of Bay Ridge one day a year and think that “something is happening” or changing in the community. And it’s wrong to give children the idea that this is an effective way to deal with hate.
DACA doesn’t just involve just the Arab community. There are immigrants from a lot more places than just Arab countries. Why has this been limited to the Arab community? The march begins and ends at two Arabic places of worship so how does that support any other immigrants in the community? Why haven’t leaders invited Christian churches to participate in this? Yes, you have to invite them when it’s an event that is running from two Arabic houses of worship.
This year there are a lot more groups involved in this. Why aren’t the leaders of these groups seeing this? Why aren’t all these leaders reaching out to schools in the area and building the community? (I know the answer……that would require work.)
One day an amazing student will make this into a unity march that extends from one high school to another (Telecommunication & Xaverian at one end and Fort Hamilton and Fontbonne High Schools at the other) . And teens will take their place as leaders in our community…. that’s how we will know that King’s message had been heard AND UNDERSTOOD. It will happen in my lifetime.
Hugs,
marlene
Topics: Bay Ridge | No Comments »