Keaton Otis Vigil

On Thursday at dusk the Buddhist Peace Fellowship joined Jo Ann Hardesty and about twenty Portland citizens at the monthly vigil for Keaton Otis, a young Black man killed by Portland Police in 2010. 

People are taking action to build understanding between people of different skin-colors and backgrounds, to create space for communication and empathy. This morning I heard an eleven-minute radio report on the use of Theatre of the Oppressed to heal some of the wounds of racism in Ferguson, Missouri. 

We want children now playing under the cherry blossoms to be safe to grow up and blossom, each in their own way. We want to re-organize our society so that the illusion of "race" and the perception of skin-color does not poison us. 

All children are our children.  

Meditating on peace and kindness and making theatre to help people understand each other will not bring back Keaton Otis or Michael Brown. But those of us who are still alive can work toward a world in which children are less likely to be stopped by police, tased, tear-gassed, or shot because of the color of their skin. We have to get up and do something, even if all we can do is stand in silence and breathe in solidarity.