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Sermon Notes:  “Supposedly…With Liberty and Justice for All….”

By Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church, Sunday, March 25, 2012

I pledge allegiance, to the flag of the United States of America.  And to the Republic for which it stands, supposedly one nation, supposedly under God, supposedly indivisible, supposedly with liberty and justice for all.

I wear this morning this “Hoodie” – I didn’t even know what I was wearing; when I jog in the morning outside, I just put this thing on, and the pants that go with it, and go out for my morning jog.  I didn’t realize that by wearing this, I was in danger.  I didn’t realize that someone in the community in which I live – it’s not gated, but it’s a community – but I didn’t realize that when I ran around in that community someone could actually do me bodily harm and justice would not prevail. I didn’t realize that could happen even having an African American president, and even with slavery ended a long time ago – I thought I was free.  I vote.  God knows I pay a whole lot of taxes. I thought I was free.  I never thought that this hood makes me look like a criminal. I never thought that if I was walking in the dark and I pulled out my cell phone that it looks like a gun.  And so anyone who claimed that they were a part of a protective force – a force that  I thought was  trying to protect ME – would have the right to shoot me dead in the street and then go home, and the police would never raise any questions about my murder.  I never thought – my mother told me about it, my grandfather told me about it, but I never thought that people could actually beat other people to the ground, get a hundred dollar fine and a few weeks of community service, while other people could steal a loaf of bread because they were hungry and go to jail for a year.  I thought I was free; I thought I was part of a country “with liberty and justice for all.” 

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