blacktrap

I was at the Center for most of the day Saturday for a training session and truth be told, several of us were typical humans gawking when we discovered a speed trap had been set up behind the center on MLK Drive.

We stared, we wondered and pondered. At lunch time, we took a picnic out back and got prime seats to the spectacle. Must be the end of the month quota, we figured. We saw some get arrested (my heart twisted, as it always does, when I see a fellow black person get arrested-no one speaks more accurately and eloquently to this emotion than Joy Leary in her talks about Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome) and we saw cars being confiscated.

I thought no more on it until the next day when I was on the South Side again, different neighborhood, and I was the one who got pulled over. Specifically, me, an eight-year-old, a 1-year-old, and their mother.

Our crime? Making a left hand turn. Was it an illegal left turn? No, in fact, it wasn't. Were we driving erratically? No, not even. What did the cop have to say? When making a left turn, you have to keep driving if you see any cars are coming towards you. (In our case, the cars coming towards us were well over a block away) but you cannot make left handed turns over railroad tracks if cars are coming towards you and you cannot stop either, you can only turn if there are no cars in sight. Or something along those lines. I am not really sure what he was saying.

Unfortunately, the mother did not have her DL on her person (she was driving).It was an interesting exchange and without sharing too close of detail, he was trying to catch her in a lie or incite her emotions and increasingly worse threats were thrown at us and though she started out polite it started to move in another direction. Switching to "sales/customerserviceperson deals with a possible disastrous situation" mode, I played a bit female dumb, addressed him "Well, officer, I'm just not sure we understand just exactly what it is you are trying to say to us." To which he puffed up a bit and proceeded to explain again about the not turning, and even though he did not make any sense still, I nodded when he expected me to nod and he smiled and said, "well ladies, I'm not going to give you a ticket this time but..."

(I mention the sales thing only because I learned that even when you think you are right, agreeing with a person when they tell you you are wrong and asking them to explain what they mean to you and then being attentive while they speak is an extremely effective tool in retaining business, getting more business, and getting an angry person to not be angry anymore. Sincerity is essential of course, but it took me three years to put my pride aside and do this well and it's been very helpful ever since-but I realized when I became a Bahai that this also could be seen as being loving..making a concious decision to be loving even when it goes against your immediate emotion and reaction..)


Afterwards, when the craziness of the move (we were moving them to their new home on the South Side) subsided, and she drove me home after we found her DL amongst boxes and bags, we discussed the incident.

We talked about the fact that something like a speed trap that intense is just not seen on the north side of Chicago, about this perhaps being someone's way of quelling crime in the so-called 'crime-infested' neighborhoods of the city--although to me that's like putting a bandaid on a scrape when both your legs broken.

We talked about a well familiar anger and attitude that so many of my peers and family have towards the police for the profiling and the injustices they have experienced over the years. We talked about how most members of her family had been beat down at least once by police in Mpls. And though she insisted- part of me did not want to believe it.

The other part of me was like, ok, but we live in this world. We know this happens. What can we do within our power to fight it and stop it? She and I talked about whether it is ever beneficial to let someone know they are mean and hurtful (a-holes) and if by saying such things is that just you sticking up for yourself? If you speak up or show anger is that pride and not getting all walked-over? How important is it to not get walked over?


We talked about turning the other cheek and about how it has to start somewhere and that anger and powerlessness with police could always be channeled into volunteer work and numerous other activities.....we talked about how ENDLESSLY hard that would be-to turn the other cheek and not sort of talk back, if you will.

She told me I live in a fantasy world. But what I thought about was this-how many people in the world feel hopeless and powerless? How many are driven to hurt others out of a genuine belief that that is the only way to protect themselves? How? And Abdu'l Baha's words rang through my mind and I found this letter which is more about war, but isn't it a war on the streets we experience? not in the same vein perhaps, but in the end it is people stepping on others to gain things that are not becoming to us....

Abdu’l-Bahá said:
I hope you are all happy and well. I am not happy, but very sad. The news of the Battle of Benghazi grieves my heart. I wonder at the human savagery that still exists in the world! How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth! Even the animals, when they fight, have an immediate and more reasonable cause for their attacks! How terrible it is that men, who are of the higher kingdom, can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings, for the possession of a tract of land!
The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man’s home, but his tomb. It is for their tombs these men are fighting. There is nothing so horrible in this world as the tomb, the abode of the decaying bodies of men.
However great the conqueror, however many countries he may reduce to slavery, he is unable to retain any part of these devastated lands but one tiny portion—his tomb! If more land is required for the improvement of the condition of the people, for the spread of civilization (for the substitution of just laws for brutal customs)—surely it would be possible to 29 acquire peaceably the necessary extension of territory.
But war is made for the satisfaction of men’s ambition; for the sake of worldly gain to the few, terrible misery is brought to numberless homes, breaking the hearts of hundreds of men and women!
How many widows mourn their husbands, how many stories of savage cruelty do we hear! How many little orphaned children are crying for their dead fathers, how many women are weeping for their slain sons!
There is nothing so heart-breaking and terrible as an outburst of human savagery!
I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.
Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.
When soldiers of the world draw their swords to kill, soldiers of God clasp each other’s hands! So may all the savagery of man disappear by the Mercy of God, working through the pure in heart and the sincere of soul. Do not think the peace of the world an ideal impossible to attain!
Nothing is impossible to the Divine Benevolence of God.
If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men.
Do not despair! Work steadily. Sincerity and love will conquer hate. How many seemingly impossible events are coming to pass in these days! Set your faces steadily towards the Light of the World. Show love to all; ‘Love is the breath of the Holy Spirit in the heart of Man’. Take courage! God never forsakes His children who strive and work and pray! Let your hearts be filled with the strenuous desire that tranquillity and harmony may encircle all this warring world. So will success crown your efforts, and with the universal brotherhood will come the Kingdom of God in peace and goodwill.
In this room today are members of many races, French, American, English, German, Italian, brothers and sisters meeting in friendship and harmony! Let this gathering be a foreshadowing of what will, in very truth, take place in this world, when every child of God realizes that they are leaves of one tree, flowers in one garden, drops in one ocean, and sons and daughters of one Father, whose name is love!