{"id":5159,"date":"2014-03-04T07:50:28","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T12:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=5159"},"modified":"2014-02-27T15:31:34","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T20:31:34","slug":"march-9-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/march-9-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"March 9, 2014–Walk the Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Dave Dodson, Fort Walton Beach, FL<\/p>\n

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Warm-up Question<\/h3>\n

Have you even had to work with someone with whom you did not get along?\u00a0 How did you handle the situation?<\/p>\n

Walk the Talk<\/h3>\n

\"shutterstock_161243480edit\"<\/a>In 1996, the Ku Klux Klan, an ultra-racist group, decided to hold a rally in Keisha Thomas\u2019 home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan.\u00a0 Keisha, an African-American woman, was 18 years old at the time.\u00a0 She and her friends decided to take a stand against the members of the Klan who has arranged this rally to say hateful things about people like her.\u00a0 With other members of their town, Keisha and her friends created signs and tied bandanas around their faces, ready to protest the Klan rally.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Klan rally and the town\u2019s protest started off peacefully.\u00a0 Though both sides were angry and tensions were running high, the groups were staying apart and their feuding was limited to words.<\/b><\/p>\n

And then something happened.\u00a0 From the back of the protesting group, a woman with a megaphone shouted, “There’s a Klansman in the crowd!”\u00a0 The protesters turned.\u00a0 Sure enough, there was a man standing near their protest wearing Southern-style clothing, with Confederate flags adorning his clothing.\u00a0 To the protesters, this was the symbol of the hatred the KKK represented.\u00a0 Howling with anger at this man, the protesters turned and began to chase him.<\/p>\n

At first, Keisha ran with the group.\u00a0 She was intending to help chase this man away from their protest.\u00a0 But then the man was knocked to the ground.\u00a0 He fell, and the crowd surrounded him.\u00a0 The angry crowd began to scream insults at him, kick him, and hit him with sticks and their protest signs.<\/p>\n

It was too much for Keisha.\u00a0 As she put it, \u201cSomeone had to step out of the pack and say, ‘This isn’t right.’\u201d\u00a0 Keisha did just that.\u00a0 She threw herself upon the fallen man, shielding him with her body.\u00a0 She protected him from being hit any more, and she shouted at the crowd to stop and to leave him alone.<\/p>\n

Keisha knew it was important to remember why she was at the protest at the first place.\u00a0 She was protesting the hatred that she had seen come from groups like the KKK.\u00a0 \u201cI knew what it was like to be hurt,\u201d she says. \u201cThe many times that that happened, I wish someone would have stood up for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this moment, Keisha found the strength to stand up for her convictions, even when it meant going against the crowd.<\/p>\n

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Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n