It is curious — and sort of great — that the hump-backed bridge at Circle Avenue has become a gathering point for social justice in our small village. From being a rusting divide between north and south neighborhoods, the art project of two years back made Circle Avenue Bridge a focal point of community building and social outreach.
Whatever bugger has been repeatedly defacing the “No Human is Illegal” placard on the bridge’s row of art has done us all a favor in uniting Forest Park against such hateful dimwittedness.
So this Friday, Juneteenth, there is the invitation and the challenge from Forest Park Against Racism to unite on this bridge, to speak plainly about the racial injustice that mars Forest Park and every town in America with a racism finally more plainly seen as systemic than random, and to demand far more of policing even while questioning the elemental structure of how we define public safety.
We’re at a crossroads and this bridge, in this moment, is the place of gathering. We will see you there.
