Submitted by Billy Talen on November 30, 2008 - 2:17pm.
This morning, a cold wet Sunday - the neighborhood feels empty. Jdimytai Damour's death on Black Friday is the overwhelming suffocating dream that we are walking around inside of here. I'm aware this morning of the degree to which the meaning of justice in our culture is driven by martyrdom, from Jesus to Gandhi to Emma Goldman to Che to Dr. King and Malcolm and John Lennon and Harvey Milk... These famous freedom-fighters whose lives were cut short... And then sometimes a Rodney King or Sean Bell will burst into view, when the injustice can't hide even the most obscure among us. Jdimytai "Jimbo" Damour has died in that blur that we, in our little comic activist group - sought to bring focus to, to slow down. We put our bodies there every year, dawn on Black Friday. We intuited that this was the place for change. This was Rosa Parks seat on the bus in the time of Consumerism. Now this young man has fallen there. I say "there," it feels like "here." Must we have martyrdom to have new meaning? -- Rev
Must We Have Martyrdom?