To The Residents of Baltimore City:
It is with great sadness that we heard the news report about the eleven shooting victims throughout throughout the City of Baltimore on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.
Our condolences and prayers go to the families of the victims who survived and the souls that succumbed to their injuries. We pray that God provides their families grace, patience, ease, and comforts their hearts during this difficult time.
But now we must face the facts.
As of today, there have been 265 murders in our city and at least 533 non-fatal shootings. This simply cannot continue at the rate we are going, approaching the seventh year of the same repeated cycle of violence.
In order to address the continuous crime in our city, we must seek a prosecutor who will actually apply the law and prosecute those individuals who feel the need to take lives and harm others. Further, we must seek understanding of how the foundation of violence was laid and an understanding of how this problem has gotten so far out of hand. We must acknowledge that this type of behavior often stems from broken homes, destruction of the family unit, poverty, and a mindset for violence.
As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, "Riots are the language of the unheard." So, too, murders and shootings are the language of the unheard. Crying out for help to get out of their dire situations, for love, and community support!
When we continue to kill or harm each other we commit injustices and oppress ourselves. We need to rebuild our communities as places where we can raise our children to be healthy and successful. We accomplish this by holding ourselves accountable (help someone in need, own your mistakes, be kind) and by demanding our elected leaders be accountable (vote for different people, write your council members, learn about the issues that matter) for neglecting the situation for decades.
Now is the time to unite across the city. Only by speaking with one loud voice which our leaders can’t ignore, only in this way can we fix a system that is so fundamentally broken.
We ask all clergy, violence prevention organizations, non-profit groups, educators, and community activists to work with us, by reaching across political, religious, social, and economic lines, thus empowering and helping us effect meaningful change to combat the senseless murders and shootings.
We all live in this city together, and we will all suffer together unless we can come together.
Now is the time to try something different.
Now Is The Time For Change,
