Memorials honoring slain West Side residents are being ordered removed by Ald. Jason Ervin, who says they’re not a good look for the community.
Medill News Service reporter Julia O’Donoghue reports in the Austin Weekly News that city sanitation workers have been making a special effort to take down the public shrines, including two on Kildare, that honor a woman killed in fall 2011.
Here’s a video AustinTalks put together last month of the two memorials at Kildare and Wilcox and Kildare and Monroe.
Twenty-eighth Ward Ald. Ervin says he ordered the action at the request of local residents.
Some of the memorials feature empty liquor bottles, which is “not a good look for the community,” Ervin told our partners at the Austin Weekly News. “Memorializing someone with a bottle of Patron is not the best way to honor them.”
The alderman expects the memorials to reappear; still he said it’s important for them to be removed: “These are memorials to the past, and we are moving forward to a brightly lit future.”
It’s not clear what friends and family members of the murder victims think of removing the memorials.
To read the rest of the Austin Weekly News story, click here.
It’s quite clear that the alderman is ignorant of spiritual processes that honored the deceased. Pouring libation is part of the ritual. I agree that trash shouldn’t be left behind, and that has more to do with those individuals performing an ancestral ritual not understanding that leaving trash-residue behind is really dishonoring the beloved deceased. Ervin apparently doesn’t understand that acknowledging your past (loved ones and ancestors) helps many to move forward. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why Burr Oaks became such a fiasco. Black folks bury the dead and disown the remains. Every other nationality takes to time visit the grave sites, leave flowers, pour libation and communicate with their dearly departed. There’s spirit after death. The lack of respect for the dead and our ancestors may be the result of vast dysfunction in the “Black” community. “Way to go Ervin”. The next time you invite the “so called” clergy – faith-based organizations to a “we shall overcome” community activity, maybe you should ask somebody about its significance.
Also, isn’t there far more important things to be of concern such as crime, unemployment, unplowed alleys during snow storms, ragged streets, inept agencies that’s wasting hard-earned tax dollars, corruption, etc.
Pick your priorities, Ervin.