THE BOTTOM LINE | New life in memory of ‘Charleston Nine’

There is now a plaque, nine small trees and a South Carolina pine tree planted in Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park in Seattle, which were dedicated on Dec. 6 in memory of the nine people shot and killed in June while attending service at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, S.C., the oldest AME in the Southern United States.

The nine bushes will add color to the park, and the tree is a symbol of our slogan that “hate will not win.” The effort was done in collaboration with the Seattle Parks and Recreation and was led by the Coalition of Black Trade Unions, in partnership with the African American Political Action Committee (Afri-Pac), NAACP and the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Seattle.

We now realize that this shooting would be the beginning of a long bloody year of similar shootings all over America, including the recent one that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif. 

On Black Friday, more guns and ammunition were sold than children toys, and in some cases, guns were bought for children, instead of toys.

Now, we hear stories of citizens taking it upon themselves to shoot at robbery suspects and pulling guns on each other during traffic disputes. But the larger tragedy is the children accidently shooting and killing themselves or their siblings, and yet, this makes no impression on our huge gun lobby.

After every shooting, the sales of guns make a major jump, and this one was timed just perfectly for the holiday season — almost too perfect. 

The shootings also seem to come in cycles with acts of overt racism, like the shooting in Chicago that are soon followed by supposed acts of Muslim terrorism, which receive far more press attention and helps mute the black anger against the acts of racism.

In every case, the danger to police officers or the danger to the larger public is pushed hard enough that people rush out and buy more guns and add to the pile of weapons they already have and don’t know how to use.

My fear is that when people accumulate so many weapons, they are inclined to find a reason to use them for something. The statistics are clear: Countries with tough gun laws have few mass shootings, and those like America with lax laws have one every other week. But the only times I have heard any conversation about getting rid of guns is when the conversation turns to the inner-city black communities — and the NRA is totally silent on that.

The demographics of America are changing, and white America is moving from a majority to a minority community, and a lot of social experts has speculated that this may be the root of the accumulation of so many weapons in those communities. Which means that too many of us have already made a decision that we are going to do more fighting than talking, and that does not bode well for the future of America.

That is why I have insisted that we form a coalition in Martin Luther King Jr. County to push back on this national trend of racial polarization. 

We can all feel something very nasty is brewing in America, and somewhere in this nation, someone needs to shine the light on this darkness. I will say it again and again that the light needs to shine from Martin Luther King Jr. County.

That is why the bushes and trees have been planted here in memory of the “Charleston Nine” because some of us believe this county needs to live up to the man the county is named after and shine a light that hopefully is seen from here to South Carolina.

CHARLIE JAMES is co-founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. County Institute (mlkci.org). To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.