The Way I See It-Jamala Rogers
There’s a quote whose author escapes me that says it’s not so much where you stand but in what direction you’re heading. I think about that paraphrased quote when I reflect on the past year of happenings in St. Louis and how things are shaping up for 2008.
The St. Louis Public Schools continues its nose dive orchestrated by Mayor Slay. The school board election trounced the Mayor’s choices for the third time and finally reached a majority of the people’s candidates. The mayor was forced to play his chump—I mean trump—card by getting the state to takeover the district and appoint a board. Parents who can are snatching their kids out of the wreckage. It’s no surprise that the district continues to lose points towards its re-accreditation.
Another badly orchestrated move by the mayor was the unceremonious forced removal of the city’s first African-American fire chief from his post. A 40-year veteran of the fire department, Chief Sherman George had nothing but exemplary performance reviews until it came to be time to promote from a disputed promotions list. Standing on principle, George put his career on the line while Slay’s coup de grace was carried out by newly appointed Charles Bryson to the position of Public Safety Director. This, after the former director resigned after a series of exposés documented his sabotage of Chief George’s leadership.
New Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson, who is white, proclaimed his first order of business was to bring unity to the racially divided fire department. Instead, Jenkerson found himself having to deal with a hanging of a monkey in one of his fire stations. The FBI ruled out that the hanging was a hate crime because a belt was used instead of the proverbial rope. Huh? No mention was made that taking the monkey from a house fire violated department rules. Most people call it stealing when you take something that doesn’t belong to you.
The backlash of this coordinated coup created a local firestorm that will have national implications. A broad coalition of civic, faith and political leaders along with concerned citizens has called for a recall of the mayor and a boycott of the city. The National Association of Black Engineers is one of several groups re-thinking their confabs being held in St. Louis.
Black people and working class whites continued to get harassed and assaulted by St. Louis cops without justice. This is consistent with the prosecuting attorneys office’s view that police can do no wrong. That same office claimed that there was no crime in police stealing money and World Series baseball tickets out of the police evidence room.
People are getting sick and tired of the waves of abuses by those in authority. It is why the “change” message of presidential hopeful Barack Obama has gathering incredible traction.
Many folks are not just sitting around singing the blues. Thousands converged upon Jena, LA to protest the unjust case of the Jena 6. Many of these were young blacks tired of the persistent attacks by the criminal justice system being heaped upon them simply because they are young and black.
Those working to abolish the death penalty have seen decreases in both the numbers of juries handing down the death penalty and the actual number of executions. The US Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of lethal injection, possibly late spring. Since agreeing to take up the Blaze case from Kentucky, no executions have taken place. In Missouri where lethal injection was also challenged, there have been no executions since Marlin Gray’s in 2005.
This year is an election year. Voters will be looking for candidates who represent a change from the political hook-ups to building family dynasties. On the state level, termed-out legislators have a chance to “exclamate” their legacy by doing something profoundly positive.
Meanwhile, citizens must continue to step up and push back. Our spending power is dwindling as pseudo-public entities like Metro squander our hard-earned dollars and the government spends billions on an illegal war. Our elected officials have been taking us for granted on many different levels. No wonder Ward Connelly feels like Missouri is ripe for bringing his anti-affirmative action dog-and-pony show here.
What I know from talking with thousands of people each year is that they want their basic human rights—a livable wage, a decent school system, access to affordable health care and housing and to be safe in their homes and neighborhoods. That’s the vision we must work together to achieve.
Accountability and participation are the keys for the stakeholders if we want a city that values the lives and contributions of all its citizens.