This morning, I want to say that “Black Leaders Matter!”
I want to say it carefully, I want to say it cautiously, and I want to say it without inflammatory rhetoric, but I do want to say it. And yes, I am going to reference Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Congresswoman Waters is a black leader who has served as the U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district for thirty years and is currently in her 15th term. She is a powerful member of Congress, and is positioned as chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee. With some observing that Waters has achieved “icon-level status,” when the 82-year-old “Aunty Maxine” speaks, people listen. She is definitely a leader!
People were listening Saturday night when the Congresswoman, who had flown to Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, to show her support for protesters, announced that that protesters should "stay on the street" and "get more confrontational" should former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin be acquitted in the killing of George Floyd. Stating that Chauvin should be convicted of first degree murder, the Congresswoman was pointed in her remarks.
Representative Waters has been here before, visiting the mother of Damien Williams to offer support after the infamous thug had hurled a chunk of concrete at truck driver Reginald Denny and performed a victory dance over this innocent man’s battered body. Williams was sent to prison on a single felony charge of mayhem, but when his accomplices got off, Waters joined in the celebration. Damien Williams was released from prison in 1997 for good behavior, but in 2003, he was sentenced to 46 years to life in prison for the 2000 murder of drug dealer Grover Tinner. Damien Williams knew only that Reginald Denny was white and nothing else, and surely, Rep. Waters could see that this was a hate crime based on race,
but she was proud to stand for Damien Williams. And what she said mattered!
Then, on June 23, 2018, at a weekend rally, Waters told her supporters to "get out and…create a crowd" if they saw a member of the Trump administration in a public setting: "If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them. Tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere." Talk about upping the confrontation, and people did so! It mattered.
And now the latest, with tensions high and amidst protests, violence and looting, Maxine Waters, a Black Leader who Matters, flies into town, ramps up the crowd, offends the judicial process, and then flies out. When the so-called by the Democrats “insurrection” at the Capitol took place on January 6, 2021, President Trump tweeted “But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order.” But regardless of this, and Trump’s calls to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard" the House impeached him, saying that he was morally responsible for the violation of the U.S. Capitol. But when a Black Leader who Matters supports a man who for racial reasons forcefully throws a cement block on a man’s head and then does a victory dance over him, when this same leader tells her supporters to harass administrators who are simply sitting down in a restaurant with family or friends for a bite to eat, and when she enflames a situation which is on the edge of disaster in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, she gets a “pat on the back” from the same people who impeached President Trump.
I would love to see Herschel Walker, Candace Owens, Burgess Owens, Leo 2.0, and Ben Carson matter! And what about the words of Rodney King, who during the riots of 1992 that ensued following the trials over his beating said, “I just want to say – you know – can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? And ... I mean we've got enough smog in Los Angeles let alone to deal with setting these fires and things ... It's just not right. It's not right,…”
I like what Citizen King said a lot more than what Congresswoman Maxine Waters said and continues to say. After all, Black Leaders Do Matter!
Love to all!
Pastor
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