Oakland, CA — Make Oakland Better Now! is a sponsor of the second annual citywide Celebration of Life Peace March and Rally. This event, organized by SAVE (Soldiers Against Violence Everywhere, a project of True Vine Church) is September 22, 2012. The message for this rally is Say Something — Say Something to your neighbors, your children, your friends, your family, your churches and your elected officials to help stop the violence! The rally will have speakers, entertainment and a community resource pavilion with groups offering support and services to Oakland residents. In 2011, more than 2,000 people participated in the Celebration of Life Peace March and Rally, and more than 40 outreach groups were represented; this year is shaping up to be larger.
MOBN! believes there are many elements involved with making Oakland safe, and it recognizes that the community has many different views about what must be done. MOBN! is sponsoring this event because its stance on what needs to be done to curb violent crime is in line with Pastor Zack Carey’s of True Vine Church and many others. MOBN! believes that gun violence is an issue that must be dealt with by implementing a multi-faceted strategy that includes the MOBN! Public safety program: A city’s number one priority must be to keep its citizens safe. This means Oakland must find financially responsible ways to provide adequate policing, restore meaningful community policing, and implement programs that provide alternatives to crime.
The Celebration of Life Peace March and Rally is a massive public awareness campaign that unifies those opposed to gun violence, and supports them in saying something to stop the violence.
God bless your witness pastor Carey.
2 Chronicles 7:14, “THEN”…
Oak-LAND shall a beacon in the West.
Frankly, it is a nice “touchy, feely” event, I am sure. But really, folks, is this what MOBN! has come to — anti-gun rhetoric? Humans pull the trigger. When will we get past the hardware to the out-of-control citizen at the end of the gun? This is really tiresome. Remember — the best program to work against violence in cities like Oakland has two basic elements — “the carrot — and the STICK”. It is the latter that Oakland citizens and their duly elected officials have repeatedly and wantonly failed at for years and years. Since these two elements are also attributes of good parenting, it seems that the entire city has collectively forgotten the basics. And for those of you who will immediately latch onto a child abuse stereotype in the above sentence, I don’t mean “the stick” literally. I mean the teaching of taking full responsibility for one’s actions — no matter the age and no matter the circumstance and without exception.