{"id":979,"date":"2014-12-05T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T05:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=979"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:50:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:50:01","slug":"dec-5-udm-students-thursday-night-vigil-at-the-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/12\/05\/dec-5-udm-students-thursday-night-vigil-at-the-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Dec 5 – UDM Students – Thursday night vigil at The Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday December 5 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0“Our students reminded me to keep on loving a hard world in a hard time.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know when The Rock landed in it\u2019s famous place on campus; \u00a050 years ago? more? \u00a0 No matter; The Rock has carried paint brush wielding student group statements all these years; \u00a0some messages playfully silly, \u00a0some Greek-pride statements, \u00a0and \u00a0lots and lots of other student statements. \u00a0 It may be that in my 34 years at UDM I have never been so proud of UDM students \u201cpainting the rock\u201d as last night between 10:30 and 11:45. \u00a0About 80 people, mostly students but maybe 10 old folks like me, gathered on a cold night to pray and pay attention to what has come to be called \u00a0\u201cexcessive police violence.\u201d \u00a0Trevor Martin, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, \u00a0and Eric Garner had many companions less well known in current media whose names the students read in prayer.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the US Department of Justice released a multi-year study of the use of force by the Cleveland Police Department. \u00a0 \u00a0I heard a first news story yesterday afternoon, that called the DOJ report \u201cscathing.\u201d \u00a0Today\u2019s New York Times article (\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/12\/05\/us\/justice-dept-inquiry-finds-abuses-by-cleveland-police.html?&hpw&rref=us&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0<\/a>\u00a0) includes these two summary paragraphs:<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s policing problems, Mr. Holder said, stemmed from \u201csystemic deficiencies, including insufficient accountability, inadequate training and equipment, ineffective policies and inadequate engagement with the community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n

Justice Department officials had been saying for weeks that the Cleveland inquiry was coming to a close, suggesting that the timing of the release of its findings was not related to the outrage prompted by the Rice killing. On Thursday, Steven M. Dettelbach, the United States attorney in Cleveland, said the investigation, which involved a review of nearly 600 encounters involving police use of force from 2010 to 2013, did not include the shooting of Tamir.<\/em><\/p>\n

Readers of\u00a0this blog know well this searing national question and its partison passions. \u00a0 As I stood in the circle of mostly students holding candles around The Rock, what impressed me most was that they were addressing the wave of ugly news sweeping the nation the way UDM hopes it\u2019s students and employees will engage hard realities. \u00a0Universities \u00a0commit to a bedrock respect for people with whom one differs, to patient sorting out of the tangled moments of human behavior, for betting on the long haul rather than the short violent fix. \u00a0 It is a demanding moral code. \u00a0UDM, in its statement of Catholic identity underscores this commitment with a theological belief: \u00a0that God approaches the human condition as one whole, leaving no one and nothing out, from a starting point of affection rather than suspicion. \u00a0At our best, UDM people respect this immense challenge as sacred reverence for God\u2019s love of the mess of humanity. \u00a0On good days I am proud of how we do that here, \u00a0proud of the 30,000+ people who came to our 20+ clinics last year, \u00a0proud of our stated commitment to the heart of the city of Detroit. \u00a0On bad days I get cranky about those same realities and look for a club to settle my disagreements at least in my fantasy life.<\/p>\n

By this measure, last night at The Rock was for me a very good day: the soft spoken reverence of the student speakers called me to love the world as it is and to build out from that love. \u00a0For the 80+ of us, last night\u2019s hour was a sacred vigil, not a rant. \u00a0 Our students reminded me to keep on loving a hard world in a hard time.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The Prophet Habakkuk<\/strong><\/p>\n

“For the vision still has its time
\npresses on to fulfilment, does not deceive
\nif it comes slowly, wait,
\nfor come it will, without fail.”<\/p>\n

Habakkuk 2<\/p>\n

\"Rock\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday December 5 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0“Our students reminded me to keep on loving a hard world in a hard time.” I don\u2019t know when The Rock landed in it\u2019s famous place on campus; \u00a050 years ago? more? \u00a0 No matter; The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":985,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}