After crisis in DC, community gathering at 5 pm in Davidson
Update: This event has been moved online. The Ada Jenkins Center has decided it is wisest to hold it virtually.
Registration is limited to the first 75 people; participants can email [email protected] for the Zoom link.
Jan. 7. By Dave Yochum. The Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson will hold a “gathering of prayer, song, and community” at 5 pm today in the wake of the events yesterday at the US Capitol in Washington DC. The goal, according to Ada Jenkins CEO Harold Rice, is to affirm unity and care for our neighbors and each other.
Speakers include Rabbi David Lipper of Temple Kol Tikvah in Davidson, Rev. Tracey Mattison Brandon of Gethsemane Baptist Church and , CEO of the Ada Jenkins Center.
The Ada Jenkins Center, which serves North Mecklenburg families in crisis with food, medical care and education, is located at 212 Gamble St. in Davidson. It has also been a center of community discussion and healing.
Double standard
Harold Rice
“The past 24 hours in our collective history have been sobering,” Rice said, explaining that he believed the protestors yesterday would have been “dead” if they were black.
“If it was protestors from Black Lives Matter, these people would have been dead. It says we’re not where we need to be as a nation,” Rice said.
Background
Social equity and unity have been top of mind for local leaders, especially since the George Floyd tragedy. All three North Meck police chiefs and mayors participated in a virtual conversation on social and racial equity in our North Mecklenburg last September.
About 110 people from Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville attended via Zoom.
“People get to storm the Capitol but no one used the thug language,” Rice explained.
Rice said he tried to take a step back from the live insurrection on television. He asked himself, “what can we do to help pull our community together?”
The event includes time to share poetry and meditation. Social distancing and face masks are required. For more information, please call 704-896-0471, ext.109.
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Mr. Rice’s comments are unfortunate. Injecting race into an incident that had nothing to do with race is counter-productive. Further yesterday’s event at the Capitol is in no way comparable to the violence and destruction that plagued so many of our cities over the past year. That in turn makes today’s cry for retribution even more hypocritical. “What can you do to pull the community together?” Try understanding why so many are so upset.