KBC hosts first "Community for Understanding and Healing"
Below is a story which relates the meeting hosted at KBC on Feb. 23. There were actually about 200 community participants.
Kirkwood meeting focuses on healing
By Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/24/2008
KIRKWOOD — They came together with the goal of bringing together two cultures that have often lived apart in this grieving suburban town."I think there are a lot of people in the community who just don't know where to start," said four-year resident Guy Hockerman of Kirkwood and its relationship with the neighborhood of Meacham Park.He was one of about 150 residents who gathered in discussion groups Saturday morning at the Kirkwood Baptist Church for a community-wide "dialogue." Their goal was to discuss how Kirkwood — in the wake of a second shooting tragedy at the hands of a Meacham Park resident — could heal and build its relationship with the predominantly African-American neighborhood in its southeastern corner.
The talks came 16 days after contractor Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, who had had a history of disputes with the city, stormed a City Council meeting and fatally shot three city officials and two police officers and critically wounded Mayor Mike Swoboda, before police killed Thornton. (Doctors at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur on Saturday upgraded Swoboda's condition to satisfactory.)
Saturday's talks came just two days after some residents berated the remaining council for taking council member Connie Karr's name off the April mayoral ballot.Karr, one of those killed by Thornton, had been the secretary of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association — the sponsor of Saturday's event — and was considered a champion of its residents. "The only person we felt we had for us was Connie, and now she's gone," said a teary Genevieve Hodges, a fourth-generation Meacham Park resident.
The participants, many of whom had known the victims and the gunman, had been given simple rules: Listen deeply, respect opinions and find ways to heal.Hodges said the neighborhood, striving for years to improve its relationships with the rest of the city, suffered after resident Kevin Johnson killed Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee in July 2005. Some white residents of Meacham Park moved out, she said. The recent tragedy makes the situation dire, she said."What I want to know are what are really going to be the repercussions?" she said. "What is really going to be the bottom line out there in the community? I feel it pushed us back at least 200 years."It was a question that was not answered Saturday.
But participants, most of whom were white, were hopeful, offering up ideas ranging from opening up additional roadways in and out of the neighborhood to starting more intensive discussions about race and class in middle schools. Former Kirkwood High School Principal Franklin McCallie, a moderator, said the group plans to conduct a similar dialogue in two weeks at a site to be determined. "The challenge becomes how to take it from a discussion to an action to make a difference," said participant Carla Hickman.
Kirkwood meeting focuses on healing
By Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/24/2008
KIRKWOOD — They came together with the goal of bringing together two cultures that have often lived apart in this grieving suburban town."I think there are a lot of people in the community who just don't know where to start," said four-year resident Guy Hockerman of Kirkwood and its relationship with the neighborhood of Meacham Park.He was one of about 150 residents who gathered in discussion groups Saturday morning at the Kirkwood Baptist Church for a community-wide "dialogue." Their goal was to discuss how Kirkwood — in the wake of a second shooting tragedy at the hands of a Meacham Park resident — could heal and build its relationship with the predominantly African-American neighborhood in its southeastern corner.
The talks came 16 days after contractor Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, who had had a history of disputes with the city, stormed a City Council meeting and fatally shot three city officials and two police officers and critically wounded Mayor Mike Swoboda, before police killed Thornton. (Doctors at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur on Saturday upgraded Swoboda's condition to satisfactory.)
Saturday's talks came just two days after some residents berated the remaining council for taking council member Connie Karr's name off the April mayoral ballot.Karr, one of those killed by Thornton, had been the secretary of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association — the sponsor of Saturday's event — and was considered a champion of its residents. "The only person we felt we had for us was Connie, and now she's gone," said a teary Genevieve Hodges, a fourth-generation Meacham Park resident.
The participants, many of whom had known the victims and the gunman, had been given simple rules: Listen deeply, respect opinions and find ways to heal.Hodges said the neighborhood, striving for years to improve its relationships with the rest of the city, suffered after resident Kevin Johnson killed Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee in July 2005. Some white residents of Meacham Park moved out, she said. The recent tragedy makes the situation dire, she said."What I want to know are what are really going to be the repercussions?" she said. "What is really going to be the bottom line out there in the community? I feel it pushed us back at least 200 years."It was a question that was not answered Saturday.
But participants, most of whom were white, were hopeful, offering up ideas ranging from opening up additional roadways in and out of the neighborhood to starting more intensive discussions about race and class in middle schools. Former Kirkwood High School Principal Franklin McCallie, a moderator, said the group plans to conduct a similar dialogue in two weeks at a site to be determined. "The challenge becomes how to take it from a discussion to an action to make a difference," said participant Carla Hickman.
posted by Kirkwood Baptist at 3:11 PM
