8
NEWS
June 25 – July 22, 2021
La Mesa Courier
Listen story CONTINUED FROM Page 1
sharing a story from the Gospel of John Chapter 3 about Nicodemus meeting Jesus and trying to define who Jesus was in front of him. “The problem was, Nicodemus came to Jesus with answers, not questions, seeking to tell Jesus’ story rather than listen to him tell his own,” he said. “I believe one of the challenges we face today as individuals and as a community is that we believe that we have all the answers — that we have, in fact, stopped asking enough questions.” DeMent shared his own story about growing up in La Mesa and how that affected his perceptions of the city and community. “By living here all my life, I believed that I understood everything about La Mesa … but maybe I realized that with what happened last year, that I didn’t fully understand all of La Mesa,” he said, adding that he now strives to ask more questions and listen more. “Five local churches gather on Zoom on a weekly basis right now for a program called Dialogues on Race, where we practice telling
Assembly member Dr. Akilah Weber (Photos by
Jeff Clemetson)
Mayor Mark Arapostathis
our own stories and listening to others,” he added. California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber was the first speaker to share her story. Weber is the daughter of sharecroppers from Hope, Arkansas who left the town under threat of lynching for “fighting for what was right and just.” She said her family found hope in California because “there was no hope for African Americans in Hope in 1951.” “So I stand here as a daughter of a sharecropper who understood what the impact of racism, the lack of opportunity, the inability to vote all meant in a person’s life,” she said.
Weber credited her father for understanding that California offered better opportunities for her and her siblings before briefly listing some of her accomplishments those opportunities granted her, including the multiple degrees from the University of California she earned that helped springboard her into a successful career as a public servant in the Assembly and now as California’s Secretary of State, adding that she now feels “indebted to California to restore the greatness back to all Californians in terms of their vision and dream for their children.” Weber cited that sense of indebtedness as a reason for her
California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber
relentless combating of racism throughout her career. “One of the things one of my students asked me some years ago at San Diego State, ‘Don’t you ever get tired of fighting?’ And I said, ‘The alternative to not doing anything, that is much too great and we have to be vigilant in what we do.’” “What I have said in the Assembly year after year is that love and inclusion and peace and justice and freedom is a rare flower that demands from us constant attention,” she said. “But hatred, discrimination, exclusion is a weed and it grows best in neglect.” Weber’s daughter, Assembly member and former La Mesa City
Council member Dr. Akilah Weber, followed and shared her thoughts on the day that roiled the city. “It started off a very promising day because we had a protest that was actually very peaceful that came so people could make sure their voices were heard and unfortunately later on that evening that very promising peaceful protest turned into a lot of pain when we saw our city being destroyed, our businesses vandalized by people who came in with a very different purpose,” she said. “But because of who we are as La Mesans, we turned pain into a new purpose SEE LISTEN STORY, Page 9
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2021 La Mesa Classic Car Show Returns! June 24th – August 26th,
Enjoy a variety of pre-1974 classic cars on display along La Mesa Blvd. btwn 4th - Spring St.
Live bands weekly, located at 3rd/La Mesa Blvd. For details, visit LaMesaVillageAssocation.org
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2020
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