Michael Brown's death and the prophetic fire

 

In the aftermath of a precious life lsot, a movement emerges

BY Cornel West , Peter Goodwin Heltzel

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, November 26, 2014, 7:00 PM

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On Monday night at 9 p.m., I (Peter) boarded a JetBlue red-eye in San Diego to fly back to JFK from talking about prophetic witness all weekend at the American Academy of Religion meeting, the annual national gathering of religion educators in North America.

Somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness, I watched Fox News and CNN spread images of flaming buildings and smashed windows all across the nation in light of the grand jury’s decision on the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Yet Fox and CNN missed the real story and the real fire in Ferguson. The true fire is burning in the hearts of a movement that has emerged in the wake of the destruction of Michael Brown’s precious life.

It’s a prophetic fire in our hearts that is finished with a nation that ignores the legacy of treating black and brown people as property, while obsessing over the property destruction that is the understandable outcome of human anguish and moral outrage.

read more at http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/west-heltzel-michael-brown-death-prophetic-fire-article-1.2025463