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Springfield NAACP President on No Indictment: “We Must Not Remain Silent About Injustice”

Springfield NAACP
/
(Facebook)

A grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson sparked reaction from not only citizens in the St. Louis suburb, but from across the nation. Officials in numerous capacities also released statements.

In Springfield, NAACP President Cheryl Clay says she is very disappointed in the decision not to indict, but encouraged peaceful protests.

“No matter what the Grand Jury’s decision, we know we must not remain silent about injustice. There is much work to do in Ferguson, in Missouri, and in our nation, and we must stand united in pursuing justice while seeking peace. We must work for structural changes while we, as Martin Luther King said, “build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear” that this event and others like them have unleashed.  Because as youth in our city of Springfield and across this nation are chanting ‘Black lives matter.’”

The August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson has prompted a dialogue on racism in Springfield.

Clay says she hopes that will continue “to address the inequalities that exist in our society, to address the mistrust that people of color continue to have towards city leaders and others in positions of power.”

Clay’s statement continued:

“We need to remember that we are all created in God’s image and that at the center of all faiths is the concept that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.  We need to remember King’s words that we must “overcome oppression and violence without resorting to revenge, aggression, and retaliation.”  Violence only begets violence and pits us against each other.

Finally lets continue to pray for our neighbors in Ferguson, our nation, and our city of Springfield that the violence will cease.  Again, King advises: ‘We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Peace is not the absence of tension but the presence of justice.’”

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