It is often in the grimmest of times when tragedy has struck that our shared humanity emerges—that we start to show the real love and support we have for each other that isn’t always plain to see in everyday life. What has been happening in Los Angeles this week is a moving example of this.
In the wake of the tragic loss of Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom, a well-known rapper and community activist in Los Angeles, rival gangs from Watts, Compton, Inglewood, and Los Angeles met Thursday and Friday afternoon to honor the slain rapper with a call for peace in the streets. Together they marched from Crenshaw grocery store to Hussle’s Marathon clothing store where the rapper died after a shooting on March 31st. The community march is meant to be the start of a larger effort for prolonged peace, and is the biggest peace rally to take place in the city since 1992—the same year the Los Angeles riots were sparked by police brutality against Rodney King. For all of us, the rally in Los Angeles is a reminder of what we all really want and that is to get along peacefully.
