Rev. McBride-Lee: In Defense Of Female Pastors

Donald,
If OIB can use the same picture twice to highlight the opinions of these women of color, but fail to provide commentary from these religious leaders as to why Joe Ganim has their support, it seems like one trip too many on the DOWN escalator, perhaps?

Moore has talked about healing Bridgeport. No, she is not a physician, rather she is a resident citizen listener and observer with an acute sense of the sickness that grips the City. But too many folks are too sick to realize that they need to “take the medicine” by getting out to VOTE. If you can’t find something good to say about Ganim2, perhaps it is not there? If you don’t have a job….or other benefit…provided by City taxpayers……..without Open, Accountable, Transparent and Honest governance. Who provides oversight? Not the women on the escalator in my opinion. They need to speak their minds and see what happens to their audience.

I wrote the following last week and re-post it again to be read and understood about healing. It starts with one life, one situation and a desire to operate differently in the future than in the past. From last week’s forum at Mt. Aery where more than one religious leader was a panelist………

“A Religious Community Shares the Situation of the “returning citizen”

I attended an event at a local church community, Mount Aery, last evening from 6-8:00 PM. The Empathy Network under State leadership coordinator Rev Nancy Kingwood-Small, of the pastoral staff at Mount Aery presented a CNN video from the Redemption Project headed by Van Jones. Jones had been invited to attend but moderator Louis Reed, fired former MIRA head, attributed weather issues with interfering with travel from New York. The audience exceeded 150 persons. What a person returning from prison faces IS one of the major issues in many Bridgeport families according to statistics shared.

The program started promptly with a compelling video that told the 1997 story of a young woman (16) in Oakland, CA who was shot seven times while in the back seat of a van and died leaving a devastated family, The shooter was a gang member working his turf with no specific reason or anger for the people in the van. He was the only person of four who was arrested, tried, found guilty and given a sentence (20 years to life). Themes of redemption, repair, reformation and forgiveness vie with the civil justice actions among professional and volunteer workers in this vineyard.

Twenty years, following the event, the shooter is shown in conversation with ‘Love Life’s’ father, who at the end of this emotional session says: “It is not where you start. It’s where you finish,” to the weeping killer. “I forgive you man.”

In the following panel discussion, Lyle Hassan Jones said: “You have to take ownership for the crime, first. Acknowledge the wrong done to the victim and family. Ask for forgiveness.” Nancy Kingwood-Small talked about the “empathy” necessary when not only individuals, but families and systems are caught up in the chaos of violence. Simple issues like “identity cards” for returnees, necessary to get a job and hold it, had been ignored by MIRA (Mayor’s Initiative for Re-entry Affairs). And PSEG construction job expectations from the $500 Million project had not “trickled down” in any meaningful manner.

Other panelists including Fred Hodges, Tito Negron, Councilman Ernie Newton and Mayor Joseph Ganim answered questions first from Moderator Reed and then from the audience. Reed informed the audience that #cut50 that he serves as a national organizer was a force securing release for 5,000 persons behind bars in 2019 and had two national goals addressed to the work of the coming decade.

There was agreement that for the 1,000 “returning citizens” coming to Bridgeport annually, not enough is done. Insufficient accountability and resources are provided. MIRA received no praise and the firing of former directors Reed and Christmas was not mentioned. The CT Post has reported on MIRA and “returning citizens” this summer. (Reed’s biography on #cut50 fails to mention two felonies and his later guilty plea to two illegal actions that caused his termination.) As Lyle Hassan Jones said above: Own the crime. Acknowledge the wrong. Ask forgiveness.

Mayor Ganim, the highest profile re-entry panelist, referred to his own “white collar crime” as perhaps complicated by substance abuse as happens to many. Other panelists talked about the role trauma plays to many seeking whole person health. The empathic community of color in Bridgeport provided him his “second chance” politically in 2015.

But whether it is the choice of leadership for a Mayoral Initiative, flat funding of an operating budget for schools for four years, the failure of genuine economic development from his administration (noting a PSEG exception initiated during Finch term) and his raising taxes in direct opposition to his campaign statements there is much to consider in 2019. Last evening it seemed that a knowing and caring audience is looking for more and better municipal and State attention to “returning citizens” and the affected families. Did the pastoral women who visited Ganim’s office discuss the topic and the failure of the “Mayor’s Initiative”? What honest accountability are they seeking? Time will tell.

Then a CT Post front page article with photos by Mike Mayko and a few days later a Page 2 article by Kelan Lyons reported the event. But neither mentioned the special advice from Lyle Hassan Jones:
1) Own the crime.
2) Extend full responsibility for your wrong actions to the victim and family.
3)Ask forgiveness.
Does this sound too simple? Not to me. Had this been done fully in 2015 would Ganim2 have gained office ?? And a moderator who was provided a “second chance”, but was fired because of illegal behavior while leading MIRA, doesn’t he need to attend to the Hassan Jones advice to help community healing? Perhaps he will amend his #cut50 Biography too? Public corruption is like that, even in 2019. Time will tell.