Today is not a day for blog stories.  Those will resume tomorrow.  Today is a day to remember, reflect and honor those who died in the horrific shooting inside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.  Their lives are meaningful and their deaths shall not go unnoticed.
Cynthia Hurd, 54, branch manager for the Charleston County Library System
Susie Jackson, 87, longtime church member
Ethel Lance, 70, employee of Emanuel AME Church for 30 years
Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, admissions counselor at Southern Wesleyan University
The Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, state senator, Reverend of Emanuel AME Church
Tywanza Sanders, 26, recently earned business administration degree from Allen University
Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74, retired pastor (later died at hospital)
Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45, track coach at Goose Creek High School
Myra Thompson, 59, church member
Outstanding DJ. Thank you for this.
And you know that I shall look forward to sharing my thoughts on this tragedy in the coming days and weeks ahead.
In the meantime, my thoughts and prayers are with the families of each ot these fine people…as well as with anyone who has been impacted (as I surely have) by this tremendous loss within the Charleston community and across this entire nation.
My heart is broken.
May they each Rest in Peace.
Yes thank you for doing this DJ. These people need to be remembered.
May Gods peace, grace and mercy sustain the family members. It's such a strange sensation I feel regarding this tragedy. Being reared in the church I understand its importance in the African-American community. It's suppose to be the last refuge from the ills of the world. A place where you can collect yourself in positive ways to be loving to others. A place where the line is drawn. Although deep within I knew the day would come when that line would be crossed again, just not so soon. I feel sorrow, anger, awareness, rage against the gunman, lack of love and forgiveness and then strangely feeling the need to love and forgive and fear all happening at once. Those who lost their lives are apart of my extended family. I come from a family of church goers. I could be in mourning today for the same close personal tragedy. All this makes me continue to think about the country I live in as a black man. Where am I safe? The reality is nowhere. Whatever line of work I'm in, whatever type of positive activity I may participate in or my willingness to abide by the law. If a person is bold enough to go into a church and kill African-American citizens, WE ARE NOT SAFE!!! WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN FOR US TO FINALLY GET IT!!! If the judge is giving this man an opportunity to make bail, then what is there to prevent persons with large sums of money that support his ideas to post bail on his behave. We have seen in recent times blacken gunned down, choked to death and lord knows what else just from running from the police . Who will post their bail? It just makes me feel disgusted with the American system that refuses to deal with these race issues. I mean is the government that blind? If this were White Americans living with this, we would be knee-deep in a civil war. I don't know what the most positive answer is facing what we are facing, but something has to really change on a large-scale to void the unthinkable.
This one is just rough