Administrators
offer messages of challenge, hope
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| Naomi Thompson, left, associate vice president for Community Equity and Diversity, speaks during Wednesday’s vigil, while Marc D. Hardge, guaranteed admissions program coordinator for Talent Development, center, and URI Police Maj. Michael Jagoda look on. URI photo by Nora Lewis |
Naomi Thompson offered a
simple, but challenging message yesterday to the more than 200 members of the
University of the Rhode Island community.
“Treat people as you would
like your most cherished loved one, your wife, husband, children or parent, to
be treated,” said URI’s associate vice president for Community Equity and
Diversity.
Flanked by other
administrators and an officer of the URI Police Department, Thompson was one of
five speakers at a vigil and rally organized in response to the violence that
occurred last week across the United States.
As she introduced herself,
she told the group that her oldest and longest running job is that of a mother
and that she, like the millions around the country, saw with her own eyes, the
killing of two black men at the hands of police in Minnesota and Louisiana.
“These men may have
children, they have wives, they have mothers just like we do, and just like I
have,” Thompson said.
“This became deeply personal, because I always feared
whenever my son walked out of the house. But when five police officers were
killed in Dallas, Texas, I feared for retaliation on my son, that someone whose
thinking was not entirely right, would say, ‘Hey you, you look like the guy who
engaged in that violence. I don’t care who you are, how many degrees you have,
whether you are a president or a vice president, because all I see is the color
of your skin, so I will eliminate you.’”
After the horror of last
week, she talked with her “sisters,” African-American women police officers and
her former colleagues in criminal justice about how they could continue. “They
struggled and they struggled and they said a prayer, and put their uniforms on,
and went off to work.”
She asked the audience to
see each other as human beings.
Paul
Bueno de Mesquita, professor and director of the Center for Nonviolence and
Peace Studies told the crowd during yesterday’s vigil, “If we are sitting on
the sidelines and mourning and grieving only, then we become passive in the
face of this kind of violence.” URI photo by Nora Lewis
“Don’t just be angry, and I have run the gamut of emotions from
sadness anger and fear. Each one of you has the moral obligation to not just go
to a vigil, light a candle, stand with a sign, but when you leave here, you must
ask yourself, How are you going treat others? How are you going to treat people
who upset you?”
Thompson opened the vigil
by introducing the Rev. Dr. Vanessa Quainoo, associate professor and chair of
Africana Studies, who offered an invocation based on this question in the Bible
put to King David in the Book of Psalms, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?
“More than 2000 years
later, today’s challenge causes us to ponder that question again. While our
hearts mourn with family members who have recently lost their loved ones, our
posture is one of prayerfulness and practice, because faith without works is of
no effect.”
Here is a portion of her
prayer: “To our Father, Creator, Our God, we pray a simple prayer. Help us.
Heal our nation. Heal and reconcile our hearts. Deliver us from oppression…the
oppression of racism…the oppression of hatred. Heal us of our brokenness…We
sorrow over the killing of 5 police officers, the wounding of many others. As
we know you also weep, O Lord. We also sorrow that Black men are dying at the
hands of law enforcement officers. But, Dear Lord, we ask you to arise and
breathe upon us a fresh wind of Your Grace and Your wisdom.”
Following a brief moment
of silence with members of the crowd holding signs saying, “My Life Matters,”
President David M. Dooley thanked the crowd for gathering yet again as a
community in the hope “that our presence can be a step toward healing and a
step toward building the kind of society, the kind of community we want to have
at the University of Rhode island and that we seek to share with all those
everywhere.”
He said that not long ago,
the campus community gathered for a similar vigil to share its thoughts, shock
and our dismay at the massacre in Orlando.
“There are few words of
comfort that I think can really make a difference when so much has battered us
and our country and our community for so long. But I am encouraged that you are
here and I hope you are, too. Your presence is a comfort, our presence
collectively can be more of a comfort than any set of words,” Dooley said.
“By coming together today,
and looking at each other’s faces, we see that there is nothing to be afraid
of,” the president said.
URI Police Maj. Michael
Jagoda, acknowledged the mixed emotions being felt among those at the vigil,
particularly new students in URI’s Talent Development Program enrolled in
summer classes.
Frank
Forleo, assistant director of Talent Development, exhorts the gathering
Wednesday in front of the Multicultural Student Services Center. URI photo by
Nora Lewis
“That’s all right. Twenty-five years ago, I stood where you are
standing (as a student) and I had the same feelings. One of the reasons I came
back was the spirit of community here at URI,” said the former Connecticut
State Police commander. “I felt valued, understood and that this community
really embraced me.”
He said officers have told
him repeatedly over the past several days about the numerous expressions of
gratitude and appreciation URI Police have received from community members
about the positive impact they are having at URI.
“(Public Safety) Director
(Stephen) Baker and I will ensure that the values associated with social
justice will be practiced and displayed by our officers every day,” Jagoda
said. “I promise you that. We have a lot more work to do, and it’s going to
take a partnership to solve our problems. URI can be a role model. This
community is unlike any other community I have been involved in.”
Marc D. Hardge, guaranteed
admissions program coordinator for Talent Development and son of the late Rev.
Arthur L. Hardge, one of the founders of the program at URI that serves Rhode
Islanders from disadvantaged backgrounds, said he was honored to speak.
“No specific groups of
individuals should be targeted for killing,” he said in the shadow of the
statute of his father outside the Multicultural Students Services Center.
“Black males who are taken into police custody should not be targeted for
murder. The men and women who don police uniforms with the intent of serving
their communities should not be targeted.
“Turning against one
another is not the solution to problems, Hardge continued. The answer is
“coming together and collaborating to solve these problems and ensuring justice
and equity,” he said.
Paul Bueno de Mesquita,
professor and director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies said everyone
has seen firsthand the brutality of racism, the horrors of gun violence, the
taking of innocent lives.
“If we are sitting on the
sidelines and mourning and grieving only, then we become passive in the face of
this kind of violence,” de Mesquita said.
“It was Dr. (Martin
Luther) King who taught us that nonviolence is the antidote to violence. He
told us it’s not just a choice between violence and nonviolence. Our choice now
is between nonviolence and non-existence. He said we must learn to live as brothers
or we will perish as fools,” de Mesquita said.
“Every day, approximately
90 of our citizens, our brothers, our sisters, including children, die at the
hands of some form of gun violence. This tells us that our society is not
well.”
Frank Forleo, assistant
director of Talent Development, offered a greeting in the language of the
Narragansett Tribe, “Asco Wequassin Netop, which is Narragansett for Good Day,
Friend.”
“We recognize the
historical legacy of genocide and slavery, and we must say clearly, Black Lives
Matter.”
He added that the URI
community is fortunate to have numerous structures that foster human
understanding, all of which have been strengthened by URI’s two most recent
presidents, Dooley and Robert L. Carothers.
“We have an improved URI
Police Department under Chief Baker and it is up to us to ensure that the URI
Police are never isolated or marginalized,” Forleo said.
After the event, Basilio
Gonzalez, a Talent Development student taking summer classes in preparation for
his freshman year as a nursing major, said, event’s like yesterday’s show that
URI cares about difficult problems in modern society. His initial impressions
of life at URI are positive.
“The campus is really
friendly, and the students are great,” said the Providence resident. “The professors are really
nice.”
Nicole Sarr, a fifth-year
psychology and human development and family studies double-major from Pawtucket, said. “I really feel accepted here.
This event was very personal and very emotional. We need more of these kinds of
gatherings, but not just when there is violence or other problems. These events
help us get comfortable with each other. This was very helpful because it
reminds us of the important issues. Just because you disagree with someone
doesn’t mean you have to kill them.”
