A Small, Beautiful Thing…Why We Marched

April 10, 2017

On the day after #MegaMarch2017 let me tell you another small, beautiful story about what it means to be “Church.”

We had great worship, yesterday morning at church. And that was beautiful. Palm Sunday, and all.

And then, almost 30 of us marched at the MegaMarch downtown. That was powerful. Big thrill of the day for me? Literally marching right behind Martin Luther King III, in a line, arm and arm with friends like Imam Omar Sulieman and Rev. Michael Bowie.

That was amazing, and seemingly once-in-a-lifetime. Michael Bowie kept saying, “That’s him, right there…..he’s got the DNA of Martin Luther King!”

But the small, beautiful story of the day comes from a whole different set of Northaven members, some of whom didn’t even go to the march.

It started with a post from my FB friend, Bethany Erickson. She has kids at nearby Foster Elementary School in Dallas, a school that has a large population of immigrant chidren/students. And she sent me this picture of sign somebody left out in front of her kid’s school.

“Mojado,” in case you don’t know, is the Spanish form of “Wetback.”

Bethany actually sent me several pics of several offensive signs that got left off at the school. But I won’t give the others any more oxygen. You get the idea.

This was clearly meant to frighten the immigrant children and their families.

Anyway, Bethany knew Northaven was close by the church, and wondered if some of our members might want to create some positive signs and bring them by Foster Elementary during the day.

So, during yesterday’s sermon, in which I was already talking about the Mega March, I showed pictures of the offensive signs. I suggested that these kinds of slurs and hate were exactly why we needed to march. I also reminded everyone that it’s yet another example of “Moral Licensing.”

I also told them that Bethany had made the suggestion about creating positive signs of welcome.

So, while me and few dozen of us were off marching all the day, a whole other group of Northaveners took signs by Foster Elementary all afternoon….maybe 20 of them at this point…so that then they arrive tomorrow, the immigrant children of that school will know that some Americans love them and support them.

Isn’t this wonderful? It just warms my heart so.

One of our families even took their sign to the march with them, and then stopped by the school after to post it. (What a symbol that is!)

By the end of the day, Bethany told me there were more than 20 signs.

The DISD security folks were worried that the rain would ruin them, and so they got brought inside to keep them safe. She tells me via text message that even more neighbor folks have been dropping off positive signs of support all day. She tells me that the story might be on the news tonight…Channel 4 or 5….look for that.