POINTS OF VIEW LET US PRAY by Deacon Art Miller
DEFIANTLY CATHOLIC
46 • August 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
home. Nor will you allow anyone to take a picture of you with one of those cameras. Do you understand me?” We all agreed—even my father who was not used to taking orders from my mom. She knew our little effort would not change the vulgar system in a land thousands of miles away, nor would it affect the bottom line of a company such as Polaroid. And yet she would make certain that our family would stand up for what was right. Her purpose was to instill in us her undying commitment to the sanctity of all people everywhere. She was pro-life before it was a movement or slogan.
STRENGTH AND DIGNITY One could speculate where this unwavering commitment to the belief in the right of all God’s creatures to live fully and without fear came from. It might have been engendered by the seed of courage that blossomed when her friend Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, stood strong in her faith when the horrid murder of her son broke the hearts of our community and the world. For it was then that the world got the chance to see the strength and dignity of Black mothers. This seed of faith was fortified when, in 1957, my mom and dad were finally able to buy a new home, which happened to be in a White community. She began
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IT IS REMARKABLE that our senses and memory are so closely linked: those smells, sounds, or tastes that transcend time and space. Every time I hear car tires screeching, I remember the 7-year-old me when my dad’s car was rammed from behind. I can remember the loud bang of our screen door as it closed that told me in my youth it was summertime. I remember my brother’s scream when he heard his classmate and friend Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi. That particular memory still lingers in the ether, infinitely hovering since 1955. Back in the day (I love saying that), my mother gathered us kids together. Not an unusual thing, but this time her serious face gave weight to what she was about to tell us. “There is a political system in South Africa that is called apartheid,” she said. “It denigrates and dehumanizes Black Africans who have lived there for thousands of years—long before it was invaded by Europeans. One of the methods they use is to require all Black Africans to carry passbooks in order to travel anywhere in the country. “Those passbooks have a picture of the person so they can be identified,” she continued. “The pictures in those passbooks are taken with a Polaroid camera because it produces an instant picture. Polaroid is an American company. From this point on, no one in this family will buy one of their cameras. They are not to enter our
