This is Chilling and Frightening

Greetings -

When I visited The Guardian online a few hours ago, I was so aghast.  One of the lead protesters of the situation in Ferguson, MO has been founded murdered and the circumstances are just horrific. They are now mourning Darren Seals.  Please read the story.

What is especially troubling is that this may not be the only such crime.  From the article:
"Local activists were also troubled by the parallels between Seals’ death and the 2014 murder of 20-year-old Deandre Joshua, who was shot and left in a burning car on the same night a grand jury chose not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s death. In all, according to one activist’s count, five other men in the St Louis area have been shot and left in burning cars since 2014"   A St. Louis Co. Police spokesperson said the dep't did not feel there were connections.  But how can one help but wonder if these are not more than mere coincidences.  Connected or not, the effect on the local community must be frightening and chilling.

I'm not sure I'd agree with with Mr. Seals on many things, being an ardent feminist and also one who believes in LGBT rights.   But I think we all can appreciate what he did as a person committed to his community and committed to working toward positive change.

We NEED people to keep doing that sort of work.  So we NEED to make sure that the rights of protesters, dissenters, activists are fully safeguarded.  We must assure that they are not held to ridicule or their views simply marginalized. We must assure that they are not subject to violence or their lives put in danger because of their beliefs or activism.

We need to continually remind ourselves that a seminal event in the Founding of our country was a little PROTEST called the Boston Tea Party.  Let us not have our Founders look down on us in shame for not protecting this right.