Back in January when Jay Johnson-Castro scheduled Monday’s vigil at the T. Don Hutto jail, he called it Vigil IV. Then today, in recognition of Friday’s protests, he renumbered it Vigil V.
But we got to thinking. Actually, Monday’s action should be Vigil VI, because surely we have to count the folks who stood out in the cold on the morning of Feb. 3 to welcome the Ibrahim family out of jail.
Vigil IV, therefore, has gone to Vigil VI in about a week. Meanwhile, the Hutto headline has topped the charts of global news.
“If we can’t make peace in our own land,” said Ralph Isenberg over the phone today, “I don’t know how we can make peace in the rest of the world.”
Indeed, this is the profound promise of the Hutto Vigils, that they will help to mark a time in history when Americans were galvanized to the challenge of lifting ourselves up to a new plateau of peace and peacemaking. Today it seems so clear that we need not settle for less.–gm
Texas Civil Rights Review 