Blackstonian Editorial
Jamarhl Crawford Publisher/Editor
The Boston Ten Point Coalition under the leadership of Rev. Jeffrey Brown has for the past several years promoted a “Season of Peace” through flyers and ads on MBTA buses. This begs the question: Exactly what is the Season of Peace. Questions are many, answers are few.
As a researcher I found it troubling that besides the flyers and bus ads, i can’t get any information on exactly what this Season of Peace is. There is no information on what Peace is or how to achieve it, very little or misleading contact information, the flyer directs you to the 10 point website http://bostontenpoint.org and one year’s flyer had the 10 Point’s office number on it 617-524-4331 but after several calls with no response and after discovering that unless you call between 9am – 5pm you will get an answering machine with not so much as a separate box for the Season of Peace.
If I was a youth who was on my way to committ a murderous act and all of a sudden a MBTA bus goes by with the Season of Peace ad on it and I was moved, what would be my next step. The ad gives no information, no instruction on how to achieve peace and a call to the office will most likely go unanswered. The Rev. Jeffrey Brown has for years promoted this campaign and talked about it in conjunction with neighborhood walks through Boston’s “hot spots”. As a resident of Humboldt Avenue, known as H-Block, and after speaking with many of my friends from other Hot Spots across the city, no one has seen the Reverend or the Season of Peace campaign, except on TV when Brown is conducting Press Conferences or on the MBTA ads. Other than that no one seems to know what the Season of Peace is all about or what work Rev. Brown is doing.
On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday November 25th, Rev. Brown held a press conference announcing this years “Season of Peace” in front of the Warren St. Quick Stop convenience store which was the site of a daylight AK-47 shooting which resulted in the death of Mother of four, Tahitia Milton and the shooting of the store’s owner on Oct. 23rd. Why would Rev. Brown choose this store, over a month later to hold a press conference announcing the latest annual incarnation of the Ten Point campaign? Has Rev. Brown reached out to the families of the victims of that tragedy? Is Rev. Brown somehow involved in the community response to this instance of senseless violence?
The Blackstonian encourages all of its readers to conduct your own research and draw your own conclusions. What is the Season of Peace?
Below you will see what the Ten Point Coalition has on its website regarding the Season of Peace.
from: http://www.bostontenpoint.org/seasonofpeace.html
Season of Peace
Season of Peace campaigns are designed to promote anti-violence. This project was launched to send a consistent message of peace to youth who were involved in the violence. The efforts of community members, churches, community organizations, police, probation, transportation department, schools, and youth detention facilities helped decrease violence across the city. The media campaign used symbols and slogans youth use in daily conversations to communicate that violence is not the answer to deal with conflict.
The second part of the Season of Peace is the neighborhood walks component which galvanizes our partners to walk through troubled areas of the city to engage youth and families.
Interesting enough, he could not deliver any good service in Cambridge and now he thinks that by being a white man's boy he will deliver some services to the black communities of Boston!… Rev. Brown can not even communicate with his brothers and sisters clergy in the greater Boston, then, how can he talk about peace??? That's very interesting matter. Boston wake up and see the truth…