No Justice, No Christmas? Why Michael Brown and Eric Garner’s Deaths Make Advent Matter

Last updated on: April 29, 2015 at 8:50 pm by Guest Contributor

No Justice, No Christmas? Why Michael Brown and Eric Garner’s Deaths Make Advent Matter 2015-04-29T20:50:08-05:00 Guest Contributor

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This week the streets all over our country have been filled with protesters expressing grief, anger, shock and sorrow that Officer Darren Wilson (who shot and killed the unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown) and Officer Daniel Pantaleo (who held the also-unarmed Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold during his arrest) failed to be indicted for their actions.

Last night crowds across the U.S. staged sit-ins and die-ins, clogged bridges, and shut down major highways. Many of them chanted, “No Justice, No Christmas.”

No Justice, No Christmas.

At first glance, I agreed with them. Screw it. Let’s just shut it all down. Shut down the bridges, the roads, the rivers, the train stations and the airports. Shut down the mall Santas and the Christmas pageants and the holiday parties and the family get-togethers. And then let’s shut down Christmas itself.

Because who wants to open a stocking filled with candy and socks and lip gloss when the Brown and Garner families will be grieving for their loved ones who are no longer with them? Who wants to sing about joy when our country is feeling so much pain? Who wants to proclaim, “Peace on earth, good will to men” when peace and goodwill are precisely the things we’re lacking right now?

No Justice, No Christmas. Seems like a good idea, right?

Last night, after reading countless articles, watching live news feeds and following the #ShutItDown, #ICantBreathe, and #HandsUpDontShoot hashtags that were trending on Twitter, my heart was overwhelmed. I shut off my laptop and climbed into bed, watching a candle on my nightstand flicker in the dark.

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