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My family laughs at me when they realize that on many mornings I wake up early with a thought, an idea, a suggestion that I feel compelled to share with others. This morning it is 4:15 a.m. as I begin this letter. I hope my Asbury Park family does not laugh at me and dismiss this letter.

The reporting by Asbury Park Sun of the Master Plan developments has been superb. Particularly, the last article that shared the thoughts of some of those who spoke at the recent meeting. I suggest that as we approach the July anniversary of the 1970 ‘riots’ we refer to that difficult moment in our history as a rebellion, and remember it not to stir up negative emotions or validate violence, but to acknowledge those moments in our history as being important to the new history that the Master Plan is seeking to create.

Martin Luther King in a Sept. 27, 1966 interview with Mike Wallace said this: “A riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro has worsened the last few years.”

Many of us in this community view the Stonewall Rebellion as being important to the gay rights movement. The same can be said of the “Asbury Park Rebellion” as being important to our current efforts to achieve a greater degree of economic and racial justice in Asbury Park.

Ignoring, denying, or revising difficult history, makes it ‘underground history.’ There have been times when that approach to history as poet Langston Hughes says, “Explodes like a raisin in the sun.”

I have suggested that Pastor [Semaj Y] Vanzant and Second Baptist Church and others take leadership in the ways we remember July of 1970. Certainly not to validate the violence or condemn those whose actions may have provoked the violence. But, to remind us of how serious is the Master Plan and the ways we implement the plan. Asbury Park is too small and important at this moment in history to allow historic ‘elephants in the middle of the room’ not to be mentioned or to be distorted as a way to justify inequality.

More than at any time in my 83 years, today the USA is in need of models of how we remember the negatives of our national history without allowing remembering to be misused by those who want to go backwards rather than forward. Asbury Park can model for the nation how best to remember difficult history. I believe we will.

I am convinced that there are persons throughout Asbury Park, of all races and backgrounds, who share a vision of remembering in ways that help shape our future.

Rev. Gil Caldwell

Ocean Avenue

[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here.]

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