The Rev. Janet Broderick of St. Peter's Church in Morristown is quoted in this article.
[Morristown Green] In a strange confluence of sights and sounds, demonstrators chanted for the rights of black men as White Christmas wafted from the Green on Saturday.
“I can’t breathe!” protesters shouted in unison as they marched around Morristown’s historic square, while an electric choo-choo full of giddy children circled the Santa House at its center.
The phrase echoed the last words of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died after being placed in an illegal choke-hold by Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on Staten Island last summer. Grand juries declined to indict that officer, or the officer who fatally shot another black man, Michael Brown, in a confrontation in Ferguson, Mo.
Morristown clergy members called for unity and justice, on a raw, grey day that saw thousands join similar rallies in New York and Washington DC.
Representing the Morris Area Clergy Council, the Rev. Janet Broderick, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, related discrimination that she witnessed towards a black boy she dated as a teenager in New York.
She denounced the “insidiousness” of a culture of fear that drives people to terrible acts including murder, and said the only answer is frank and open dialogue.
“We’ve got to learn each other’s phone numbers, and we’ve got to able to text each other,” Broderick said.
