Anatomy of a Memorial

Philippians 3:10

MATURE • MENTOR • MINISTER • MAINTAIN • INVESTING IN BLACK FUTURES THRU STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Terrence Walker, 19 yrs. old :: February 21, 1988—April 8, 2007
Memorial located on Market Street between 61^st & 60^th Streets
Visited April 12, 2007

Terrence Walker, Philadelphia's 107th murder victim in 2007, was found lying in the street under the
Market-Frankford El in the 60th block of Market Street in West Philadelphia, shortly after midnight, Easter
 morning.  He was pronounced dead at the scene.  Terrence graduated from West Philadelphia High School.

"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country!"
John B. L. Soule's famous 1851 exhortation made popular by Horace Greeley.
The West is kind of different now.  They got it like that /\ 'n we got it like this \/

Terrence Walker's Market Street memorial rose up next to a support column for the Market-Frankford El in
a Baghdad-ed neighborhood that languishes some 60 blocks away from Philadelphia's bustling Center City.
Commuters pass by overhead on their way downtown. "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?" Lam. 1:12

A heavy rain during the night and early morning drenched the stuffed animals and deteriorated the posters

"STOP KILLING THE BLACK POPULATION — P.S. WILL YOU PLEASE?"

Terrence's prom picture with note attached
photo courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer

Teddy bears, gorillas, rabbits, dogs, chicks, Tasmanian devil, SpongeBob Squarepants,
 monkeys, boxing gloves and memorial candles for "Tear-Tear"/"Terrance AKA T-Mack"

What it takes—literally and figuratively—for the YUBM to survive in America

"Another soldier lost"-emblazoned stuffed bear's foot crushed under a parked car's rear tire

"Happy Easter" tag tucked in with the animals

Rain-filled memorial candles stand like sentinels alongside shards of broken-up melted wax.
Yet another shooting took place during a Tuesday night vigil for T-Mack, wounding a woman.

"True Religion."  Who's got it?  What's it look like?  How's it work?  Will it stand up on the other side of the grave?

"TO AN UNKNOWN GOD"
Acts 17:23

As Paul toured Athens Acts 17:16 ff, he looked at their worship altars and came across the inscription,
"TO AN UNKNOWN GOD."  After noting that the Athenians were very religious, he used the inscription
as a starting point to proclaim that, "God... has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by
the man He has appointed.  He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead."  The
thing that's particularly sad about T-Mack's memorial is that while God's name is written in a number
of spots ( as in the familiar "GOD BLESS YOU" ), the name of Jesus — by which He's revealed Himself
to mankind — is hard to find.  Hmmm.  Can the Lord Jesus we say we know handle the streets today?

Cry No More

I Tried

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