This morning we held a Clergy Roundtable at the Unitarian Church of Staten Island with NYC council speaker Christine Quinn, NYC council woman, Debi Rose and Assemblyman Matthew Titone about what clergy can do to respond to the summer's sweltering heat on Staten Island that has come less from the 90+ temperatures than the explosion of violence, fear and alleged hate crimes.
During the meeting, I had a deja vu experience paralleling my first week on the Gulf Coast three years ago. I had particular images of Mississippi and the rest of those "deep south" states and the bigotry and racism that I was sure went along with them. My first week in Mississippi, I attended community meetings of a rainbow coalition coming together around the enduring aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Here I found people working together from various organizations, religions and racial and ethnic groups in a way that I hadn't experienced in much larger cities or urban areas. That same week, this organization hosted men from Iraq who visited to find out how local Gulf Coast communities handled disasters and fostered reconciliation and healing. It opened a floodgate for me--one of being present to what was happening in the moment, dismantling preconceived notions and generalized geographical prejudices.
Before I arrived in Staten Island, I heard about the racism and the North/South Shore divide. You can't live here long without observing some of this hateful behavior but to say that this is the norm for Staten Island is to shut one's eyes to the people in every neighborhood who go out of their way to help their neighbors and would do anything for another person--the young Latino man who helps a young White child with a cart full of water bottles get on and off the bus with his heavy load, the young Black man whose groceries are leaking and the older White woman who hands him an extra bag and the men and women from countries all over the world who share their stories with you if you just listen to them and smile in their direction.
Yes, Staten Island is suffering right now from a rash of violence and alleged hate crimes. Headline after headline includes violence and racial and ethnic slurs against Latinos, denigration of Muslims seeking a new location for a much needed mosque and community center, attacks on a gay couple eating an early morning meal at a local restaurant, the beating of a Russian woman, an attack on several young Black men and the brutal murders of her four children by an unemployed mother who then killed herself, leaving a neighborhood to grieve and wonder "what can we do in such desperate times as this?" There is no denying that we need to address the pain that is saturating our borough like a blanket of humid air settling over us.
But it would be wrong to think that violence defines Staten Island, that we are monocultural, one race or one religion. Staten Island is extremely diverse. We have a wealth of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity and I'm proud to call myself a Staten Islander. Through this long painful summer, we have come together as one community to say that each and every one of us is Staten Island. We have formed Anti Violence Task Forces and Clergy groups and I have witnessed some of the victims of these alleged hate crimes attend rallies and task forces and share their stories- asking for unity, asking for peace, asking for us to all work together as one. We are acknowledging the impact of joblessness and poverty. We recognize we have a lot of work to do.
The "I am Staten Island" campaign, initiated by city councilwoman, Debi Rose, with widespread community support has proposed a 10 point plan. Speaker Quinn asked for our input this morning, that this plan may end up being 100 or 1000 or more points to it. The clergy involved are dedicated to reach out to youth, to gangs, to open our doors so that there are safe places for people to go; so that there are activities for our youth and so that there is education, dialogue and outreach regarding diversity and respect for all. There are business leaders meeting together to come up with plans for jobs and mentoring for youth and those who can't find employment, and education programs planned, bringing back the successful "Respect for All" curriculum. Check out iamsi.info for a listing of activities, programs and new plans as they emerge. You will see that the Staten Island depicted in movies and bantered about by people who have not updated their impressions in decades, is archaic.
We are half a million people with cultures including Latinos,Sri Lankans, Liberians, and people from many different Asian and African countries. We are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh,Unitarian Universalist, and people with no religious affiliation. Our skin colors range from deepest mahogany and cocoa to vivid earth tones, peach and ivory hues.Despite this "heated" summer, many of us here on Staten Island have chosen to be proactive and to do something about the "heat wave". We have our share of problems and racism and hate crimes are a part of what we need to address, but that is a very limited understanding of who we are and how we stand together. We are Staten Island and we will make it through this hot summer--TOGETHER!
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