Out From the Narrow Place

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

–      Genesis 4:8-9

Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and misconduct charges in the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald… Van Dyke's attorney, Daniel Herbert, has said Van Dyke feared for his life and insists that the video doesn't tell the full story.

–      CNN, December 2015

This shall be a day of remembrance for you.

In times to come, when your children ask you,

“What is the meaning of these precepts, these statutes, and these laws,

that the Lord our God has laid down for you?”

You shall tell your children,

“Once we were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt,

and God brought us out of that narrow place by his mighty hand.

Before our eyes God worked great and terrible signs

and wonders against Pharaoh and all his house.

And he brought us out from there to lead us to the promised land.

And God commanded us to observe all the statutes,

to love God, for our own good forever

so that we might live as on this day.

And for us justice will be to take care

to observe all these commandments

before the Lord our God as he has directed us.”

*

And to love our neighbors as ourselves,

is this not the first and last?

And are we not as bound to struggle

for the freedom of our fellow persecuted as our own?

Remember, now,

at Homan Ave and Fillmore St

in the heart of North Lawndale,

there is a dull brick building

a city block long,

with cameras watching

from the corners of the roof

and a few unmarked cars parked outside,

beneath the fire escapes,

beside the steel garage doors.

If you ask the police officers

standing around what it is, they’ll say,

“I don’t know what this is.”

“This isn’t a police station”

“We don’t hold people here.”

But if you ask Kory Wright,

he might tell you

about the nightmare

he and his relatives lived through

in that building

On the morning of his 20^th birthday

a hot day in June,

when he and his cousin were on his porch

He was having his hair braided

while another cousin and a friend

played video games downstairs

A woman walked up to them

and asked for change for a fifty

to buy crack cocaine

Three minutes later,

officers in plain clothes

swarmed the house

arrested the four boys

and took them to the black site

no rights read, no calls made,

no prints taken, no papers filed

Kory told the officers it was his birthday

and they sang Happy Birthday to him

Then

they put the boys in separate cells

the size of cubicles

An officer zip-tied Kory to a bench

strapping his hands on both sides

told him “It’s gonna get a little hot in here”

then left

The temperature rose

For six hours, Kory sat sweating and hurting

with no water or toilet or phone

In another room, his friend Deandre Hutcherson,

19, was cuffed, arms spread as if being crucified

while officers punched him in the face,

stomped on his groin, and interrogated him

about crimes he knew nothing about

When pressed on allegations

of police abuse at Homan Square,

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said,

“That’s not true.

We follow all the rules.”

*

When your children ask you

“What is the purpose of these laws?”

Tell them we were once slaves,

and that is why we know what freedom means.

And that is how our religion came to us:

As a mission

to set the world free –

Tell them

we were once captives

in mitzrayim, the narrow place,

and that the God of Nature brought us out

by parting an ocean and softening a heart

Tell them

we obey these laws

because they come from freedom

and serve that purpose only

and that the darkest, narrowest place of all

is not in Egypt or in Homan Square

but in our very hearts and minds

if we forget the meaning of these words:

Tzedek, Tzedek tir’dof / l’ma’an tich’yeh /

v’yarash’ta et-ha’aretz / asher Adonai eloheycha noten lakh

Justice, Justice shall you pursue, so that you may live

and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you

Put these words upon your hearts.

Teach them to your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home

and when you walk along the road

when you lie down and when you get up

Tattoo them upon your skin

and pin them to your clothes

Tzedek, Tzedek tir’dof

l’ma’an tich’yeh

Write them on protest signs

and frame them over your bed

Tzedek, Tzedek tir’dof

l’ma’an tich’yeh

Justice, and Justice alone shall you follow,

so that you

may live.