‘Silent march’ planned for Saturday in The Junction

Announced via a Facebook event page, a demonstration at noon Saturday in The Junction, titled “Black Lives Matter: Silent march for youths and friends.” The link was e-mailed to us overnight; the times on the responses indicate it was announced sometime before 3:15 pm yesterday. Local volunteer and entrepreneur Lashanna Williams writes in the invitation:

Together we show that this has to stop, and we are the agents of change. We are. Our children are. We ARE agents of change.

Don’t wait for someone to change it…. Let’s do it.

Saturday at noon together, we will walk around the festival carrying the names of the black lives lost to police violence this year. Together we will hold space for the lives taken, we can create space for change, meaningful change.

My son, danté and my daughter, coco, will be just outside Easy Street Records at 12:00. They will help to lead silent peaceful protest line through the festival.

Kids, please bring your parents. Parents, please bring your kids and walk.

I know an hour doesn’t right all the wrongs, but it is a way to express our anger and sadness with our children, formulate thoughts with other adults, and just share space with others who are just DONE.

Jack Sparra July 8, 2016 (11:03 am)

Attorney General: ‘The answer must not be violence’

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Friday that this “has been a week of profound grief and heartbreaking loss.”

“The peaceful protest that was planned in Dallas last night was organized in response to the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota,” Lynch told reporters. “Now we’ve opened a civil rights investigation in Louisiana and we’re providing assistance to local authorities in Minnesota who are leading the investigation there.”

She said that after the events of this week, “Americans across the county are feeling a sense of helplessness, of uncertainty and of fear.”

“Now, these feelings are understandable and they are justified. But the answer must not be violence. The answer is never violence,” she said.

jam July 8, 2016 (12:06 pm)

I want to join this silent march but I’m afraid to. I’m afraid of all the crazy violence that can erupt in the most peaceful of gatherings. Try to be kind if you respond to this, I’m being very serious.