Groups Rally Against Violence In Muskegon, Michigan
Giant Steps and Moms On A Mission recently joined forces at a Stop The Violence Rally held on Saturday, September 14, 2019 in Muskegon, Michigan. Special guest was Keata Cooper, the mother of Zamarian Cooper who was shot while walking with his sister.
"I loved the rally," she said. "It was nice to see people who are not even from Muskegon trying to help stop the violence here. There are more people who need to be doing this work and I really appreciated them showing that they really do care."
In this interview with the Grand Rapids Times, Reggie Howard of Giant Steps talks about the two organizations joining forces, how they are trying to be apart of the solution, working with Elijah Libbett of Moms On A Mission and more.
GRT: How did these two organizations come together to hold a rally?
Howard: The city of Grand Rapids had a pitch night and Elijah Libbett was there also. He said to me that it takes a village and that we need to learn to work together. So we met and talked and he is guiding me to be able to work with young people.
On Saturday, he invited Giant Steps and me to come on out to Muskegon and to bring our Stop The Violence t - shirts and partner together, because there is strength in numbers.
GRT: What is the mission of Giant Steps?
Howard: At Brown - Hutcherson Ministries, we have a group called Giant Steps, through which we are working with boys and girls from the ages of fifteen to twenty - four. We are working with them on all steps of life.
We are working with the good kids and the kids who are at risk because we want them all to see that they are all valuable. We want to pour positivity into our young men and women. Some of them are locked up in the penal system or being buried by their parents.
So what we want them to know is that we hear them and that we support and want to help them.
We are not trying to direct them and tell them what to do; we want to hear from them how we can apply some of the things that they need so that they can possibly make different decisions.
GRT: Tell me about the "Put The Guns Down" t-shirts.
Howard: We have a t-shirt that has "Put The Guns Down" and the reason why we said that is because it may start a conversation or a kid may think for one split minute, whether he should pull that trigger because once the trigger is pulled, then there are going to be consequences.
Once they pull that trigger, then not only does the shooter lose, but the person who has been hit by the bullet and their loved ones also lose. Just think about the little girl who was being walked home by her brother. I am pretty sure that she is traumatized for life.
Pain is real and it is really real for us as men because we have to be able to step outside and say, 'I want to be apart of the solution' because we all want to be there when the television cameras are there, but afterwards what are we going to do?
When there is a kid crying on the street, we can't wait for a camera or police to show up to put our arms around them, or when we see them about to do something wrong, we have be ready to help save their life.
GRT: I understand that there was a casket involved in the display?
Howard: Yes, we also had a casket out there with a mirror so that kids could look into the casket and where kids could walk up and realize that it is not the place that they want to end up, and it made it real. When you are face to face with that grieving mother, and you really don't have any answers for her. The only thing that we can do is to show her support.
GRT: Why is being a part of the solution personally important to you?
Howard: I have been out in these streets and I was afforded some opportunities to not only get a decent job but to get my life back off of alcohol and drugs so it is in my heart to want to see another young man or woman say, 'somebody told me that I could do this and I found out that I really can and not only did they tell me that, but they walked with me'.
At Giant Steps we get a chance to walk with them. I met a kid the other day who just wanted a decent meal and it felt very good to sit down to eat with him while he told me that he was going to really try hard to do well in school this year — even though I had not even asked him about his grades.
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