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"Tyshawn was not in the wrong place. The
murderer, the executioner, the assassin - he was in the wrong place,"
Father Michael Pfleger said Tuesday at the funeral for Tyshawn Lee. The
9-year-old boy was lured into an alley and executed by gang members eight days
ago, Chicago police said.
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://saintsabina.org/tyshawn-lee-homegoing-service/message/tyshawn-lee-funeral.html
Tyshawn Lee Homegoing Service
Tuesday, November 10, 2015. Eulogy by Father
Michael L. Pfleger, Senior Pastor.
Eulogy for Tyshawn Lee
Homegoing Service on November 10, 2015
by Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, Senior Pastor, The Faith Community of Saint Sabina
Carla, Pierre, Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles,
family, to the community.
This morning we meet at the uncomfortable
intersection of pain and anger. An intersection that we have met for too often
at. An intersection that seeks to paralyze us, hold us up, and lock us into our
pain and our anger. There are some that like to stand up and say that 'this is
an act of God.' Well, I ain’t one of them. This is not an act of God. This is
the face and the reality of evil. This is evil right in our face.
We meet at this intersection, because Tyshawn, just
like so many before him, Amari Brown, Antonio Smith, Alia Shell, Tamiya Adams,
Chastity Turner, and countless others. Tyshawn was not a child in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Tyshawn was on his way to play basketball, at the park
down the street from his grandmother's house. Our children have a right to walk
our streets, our children have a right to play in the park, our children have a
right to sit on their porch, our children have a right to expect to be safe
wherever they are in the city of Chicago. Our children deserve that.
Tyshawn was not in the wrong place, the murderer,
the executioner, the assassin, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Tyshawn was doing what any child has a right to do, be a child.
Tyshawn, like so many of our children, are victims
and they're martyrs of a society that has lost its conscience, we’ve lost our
conscience Chicago. And that's why it’s so important, that although we meet at
this intersection of pain and anger, that we decide not to park here. We decide
to make a choice to proclaim that this is not the end of the journey.
We must, Chicago, find the killer of Tyshawn. We
must catch each individual who stoops so low, that it is almost unspeakable to
comprehend. We must lock up any individual who seeks, by his or her horrific
actions, to create a new low normal. A normal which used to be beyond street
code or prison code, that you would not tolerate the killing of children. This
used to be a value, in our society. WE must lock up anybody, and I hate the
prisons, but there are consequences when you make our children targets of some
murdering coward. And that's what you are, when you hurt children. You're a
coward. You're a punk.
We must challenge a community of individuals where
fear and silence protect, provide, and shelter such criminals. Code of silence
is real. I get that. It's real, not just in the streets, it's real in the
neighborhood, it's real in law enforcement, it's real in the church, it's real
in politicians, it's real in Fox Lake, where we send in emergency resources
from the government to come in and find a murderer of a guy who killed himself
but where are the resources to find the murderers of our children on the
Southside and Westside of Chicago? Bring in federal resources! Our children are
just as important as a cop in Fox Lake!
We must challenge individuals to rise out that
place of fear. As real as it is. Because, sisters and brothers, we are lost if
we begin to live and get comfortable in a day where fear trumps consciousness.
Something inside of us has to rise above the emotions trying to keep us
captured and say 'Enough. I will not be quiet.
Yes, we must find the coward and the assassin. But
we also have to have the courage to confront the system and the society that
produces such a murderer. We have to have the courage to look at the roots of
the murderers that live in Chicago, and across this nation, that give birth to
this violence that is holding communities in fear and causing our children to
wonder not where they are going to be or what they are going to be when they
grow up. No child should ever wonder if his future is going to be snatched from
him.
WE have to have the courage to confront the sins of
America. I'm sick and tired of spending billions of dollars overseas, and we
don't have a damn penny for here in Chicago. I'm sick of it. We've got to
confront the sins of America where we have double-digit unemployment in our
neighborhoods. I don't want to hear nightly news say 5.1% unemployment in
America, because to hear you say that you tell me I live in Auburn Gresham,
we're not part of America. Englewood is not part of America, Lawndale is not
part of America, because we don't have 5% unemployment, we have double-digit
unemployment, and if we're part of America then treat us like the rest of
America.
We've got to confront failed education systems, and
lack of options and opportunities. We've got to confront poverty and racism. A
perverted entertainment industry that shells out money, and Mark we talked
about this, that pays kids to do their dirty work. The sonys, the Universals,
the Inters copes, you pigs! Pimping our children for your money. Enough!
We've got to have the courage to look at the broken
bridge between law enforcement and community, and we both have got work to do
on both sides.
We've got to confront the system that is raping the
poor in America and Illinois. How dare you state of Illinois governor, rob
every program in our communities of employment and help, and programs of
child-care, and programs of earn-fare, and programs of link card. You're not
going to take away money and balance your budget on the poor.
WE have to have the courage to confront a gun
industry and the NRA whose running to the bank while blood runs (in) our
streets. And you live in your gated-communities and your children are safe.
WE must have the courage to look within ourselves,
sisters and brothers, to our homes, our blocks, our neighborhoods, our
churches, where have we failed, all of us? Where have we failed to create
homes, and blocks, and churches, and communities, and neighborhoods to give our
children a chance.
We've got to put back in place safety nets. We
can't speak in churches about your destiny, your destiny, your destiny and not
get out of the pulpit to change the streets that allow a child to reach his or
her destiny. If you are going to preach about it, make sure the streets allow
children to reach it.
Yes, we've got to arrest the killer of Tyshawn, but
we also got to have the courage to arrest a society that has produced a killer
like this one.
Sisters and brothers, we must also decide that
although this act of evil may have brought us together, Pierre and Carla and
family, to this horrible intersection of pain and anger, we will not, Carla, we
will not, Pierre, we're not going to park in this intersection. We must decide
as a community, we refuse to allow Tyshawn's life to be defined by a moment on
a Monday afternoon, November 2nd. That's not who Tyshawn is. Tyshawn had too
much life in him, he had too much good in him to be defined by an act of evil.
You won't define Tyshawn, we know Tyshawn, his schoolmates know Tyshawn, his
faculty know Tyshawn.
Tyshawn’s days may have been short, but his life
and his imprint was long. Tyshawn loved life. He was smart. He was smart, he
was loving, he was caring. He loved playing video games, and teaching his
cousin's how to play games. Tyshawn was technologically savvy, I wish I could
have gotten some help from him because I'm stupid. He was computer savvy, who
taught his mother how to set-up her DVD. 'And a child shall lead them.' Tyshawn
was funny. Tyshawn loved to dress up. Tyshawn loved to go to school, and
Tyshawn was loved by his classmates and his school. He was loved. He was loved,
y'all didn't hear me, he was loved by his school.
Tyshawn loved basketball. He dreamed of playing in
the NBA. Yes, as difficult as it may be, we must not let this act of violence
define this young boy. We must never allow this act fo violence to hold us
hostage, we must never allow this act of violence to rob us of our memories,
and our smiles, and our laughter. For the great young man he was, the smiles,
the laughter, the joy, the good kid he was. Get on your feet and give Tyshawn
the kind of support so he knows we love him.
The reason we can't park here, Carla, on this
street of pain and anger is because death for the believer is never a final
stop. Death, for the believer, is never an end. Death for the believer is not a
closing statement, a benediction. Death is but a stop along the journey of
life, on the way to eternal life in Jesus Christ who took the bottom out of our
grave. And promised us life everlasting. The Bible reminds us that the Believer
doesn't mourn like the world, because the believer knows something the world
doesn’t know, that death, no matter the age or the circumstance can never put a
period on a life, all death can do is put a comma on the life. And the fact
remains, because death doesn't put the period on life, Tyshawn lives. Tyshawn
lives! Tyshawn lives! He lives because Jesus lives. Jesus got up from the grave
and he brought us up with him. Tyshawn lives because Jesus lives.
So Tyshawn, thank-you. Thank-you for the joy you
showed us. Thank-you for the love you showed us. Thank-you for the lessons you
taught us adults. Your life may have been small in quantity, but it was large
in quality.
Tyshawn, you not only touched the lives of your family, your classmates, and your friends. But this last week, Tyshawn, you touched a nation, the United States of America, and called her to look at herself and deal with herself. A nine-year old boy made America stand still.
I pray, I pray that we will not just come here and
mourn a baby snatched from us. But I pray from my heart that it will propel us
to a movement of change. Death may have been what brought us together, but it
will be our commitment to life and to love, and to peace, and to justice, that
must move us forward to transform not just this neighborhood but this city and
this country and this world. Because you see no one, not a politician, not a
preacher, not an activist, not a resident, nobody can say they love Tyshawn and
not do something to change the society that brings us here today. Nobody has
the right to bring up his name without making a change on your block, in your
house, in your neighborhood, in your city.
So, Tyshawn enjoy the place that God has prepared
for you since the beginning of all time. Bring your smile to heaven, and make
it a little brighter. Bring your laughter to heaven, and make it a little more
joy-filled. Bring your technology to heaven, maybe you can teach some of them
old saints how to do a computer.
Tyshawn, I know you loved basketball and you wanted
to play in the NBA. But there is a new uniform for you to wear today, its
called the robe of Victory, its been washed in the blood of the lamb.
Tyshawn, step onto a new court that has been prepared
for you. Its not the court of Dawes Park, but its the court that has been paved
in gold, and hear, hear the cheers of all the fans standing in ovation,
shouting and clapping for you Tyshawn, its called the cloud of witnesses. And
Tyshawn when you get there give a high-five to the team thats standing on the
court waiting for you. Shooting guard, Jordan Davis. Small Forward, Tamir Rice.
Power Forward, Trayvon Martin. Center, Blair Holt. Point Guard, Michael Brown.
And look there is Terrell Bosley playing the drums. And listen there is
Hadiyyah Pendleton, Rakia Boyd, and the four little girls of Birmingham,
they're cheerleading for you Tyshawn. And look over there, there is the coach,
look at the coach, it's Emmett Till. Emmett Till is waiving you on the court.
Yea, Tyshawn step up in the court. Play ball, play ball, play ball! This aint
the end.We'll see ya in the playoffs!
Eulogy for Tyshawn Lee
Published on Feb 22, 2016
Homegoing Service for Tyshawn Lee, held at the
Faith Community of Saint Sabina on Tuesday, November 10, 2015
VIDEO
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5GYNKBGBwY  |
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Photographs of Tyshawn Lee are on display at
his visitation at Haven of Rest church in the South Chicago neighborhood Nov.
9, 2015.
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