How Baltimore called a ceasefire

There is a pastor in Baltimore.

His name is Michael Phillips,

he is the pastor of Kingdom Life Church,

and often talks about how problems
show up in our lives so arrogantly,

with so much confidence, as if there is
just nothing we can do about them.

And the murder rate in Baltimore
had been doing that.

Year after year, it just
kept showing up as this big thing

that there was nothing any of us
could do anything about.

But the thing about Baltimore

is that it has never been the one
to just be defeated.

So the story about the Baltimore Ceasefire

is that Baltimore looked
the murder rate in the eye

and said, "What you're not gonna do
is snatch our greatness."

So two years ago, I'm at
a 300 Man March meeting.

At the time, I was a leader
in that movement.

And this guy named Ogun --

he's like a godfather
of hip hop in Baltimore --

he came over to me and he said,

"Yo, I have this idea about
calling a ceasefire in Baltimore,

and I feel like you are somebody
I should talk to you about that."

And I was like, "I'm absolutely
somebody you should talk to about that,

because that's something we should do."

And so we played phone tag
and meeting tag,

and two years went by and we never
really sat down and talked about it.

So now we're in May of 2017,

my son Paul, he's 19 years old,
he's driving me home from work one day,

and he says, "Ma, did you know
that the murder rate in Baltimore

is higher than it's ever been?"

And I said, "What you mean
it's higher than it's ever been?

How is that possible?

Like, I mean, what about people who say
they have connections to the streets?

Why won't they use those connections
and call a ceasefire or something?"

And on and on I went

from my own feelings of helplessness

about what other people weren't doing.

The next morning I woke up

and I realized that what
I was really angry about

wasn't about what other
people weren't doing,

it was that I had heard
this message years ago

and I hadn't moved on it.

So it was about what I
was supposed to be doing.

So I got up and I'm going, okay,

if we could just have three days
where everybody in the city

was committing, nobody
is going to kill anybody,

and we're going to celebrate life instead,

when can we do that?

So it's May, I look at my calendar,

all right, I've got some free time
the first weekend in August,

we

we'll do it August 4th
through August 6th, right?

So we're all excited,
I start driving to work,

and the more I drive, the scareder I get.

And so I start going, "Never mind,
I won't say this thing out loud.

Nobody will ever know
I was thinking it if I don't say it."

But it wouldn't let me go,

because God loves to show up as us,

and because I look broken

and I'm always called
to stand in my wholeness,

there was a call on my life
to say this thing out loud.

And because my city looks broken

and is always yearning
to show up in its wholeness,

there were hearts that moment
calling all through my chest

that people around this city
wanted to do something great together,

and people who had already
been killed in my city

were calling to me

up through my gut in my chest

as a knot in my throat, "Yo E,
you cannot just let us be dead in vain

when you know how
to say this thing out loud."

And I responded to them with my feaer.

"But somebody might
get killed anyway that weekend."

And that was the moment
where I had to accept

that maybe while we're out
spreading this message --

"Hey, nobody's going to kill anybody.
We're going to celebrate life!" --

maybe somebody will be plotting
to take a life right then and there,

but now they would have
a rumbling in their spirit.

And so I knew it was time for my city

to have a collective
rumbling in our spirit.

So I got on the phone, got around to Ogun,

and I said, "Yo, you said
you wanted to do a ceasefire?

What is it? I'm ready."

So he said, "You know, when I hear about
the Israelis and Palestinians at war,

I'm like, that's too bad,
they should stop that,

but when I hear the word ceasefire,

that makes me pause and stop
and really research what's going on."

And he wanted Baltimore
to get that same kind of attention

from the outside,

but introspection from the inside
about what was going on with us.

And we talked about how
it couldn't belong to one person.

Not one person or one organization
should call a ceasefire.

The whole city had to own it
and do it together.

So we had our first meeting in May.

About 12 or 15 people show up,

and this is where it gets named
the Baltimore Ceasefire,

because you know what that means
when you hear the word "ceasefire."

Just don't kill nobody.

And this is where the Baltimore
Peace Challenge was born.

Because it's not just about
not being violent.

It is about being purposefully peaceful.

What is going on in your thoughts?

What kind of petty things
are you not saying out of your mouth?

How are you responding
in your behaviors to conflict?

I grabbed up five people who I trusted,

and the six of us became
the organizing squad.

So let's give them props real quick.

On the count of three,
I want you to yell "Squad."

One, two, three: squad!
Audience: Squad!

Erricka Bridgeford: And it's ??'s
birthday. Happy birthday, ??.

Audience: Happy birthday!

EB: Right, and so we put out
a press release,

and the media told us,
this is not really a story yet,

we will get with you on August 7th
to see how the ceasefire went.

So we went, "Oh, word?
Oh, all right then."

And Baltimore got to work,
and not only did people send money

to the PayPal account
so we could buy flyers and posters,

people came and got the flyers and posters

and they put them all around the city,

and people were having
conversations with each other.

What kind of resources do you need?
What are you going through?

What has happened to you?

Because we understand the root causes
of violence in this country.

People who said it wouldn't work
still ended their sentence

with "but please keep trying.
Somebody needs to do something anyway."

Teenagers who would tell us

about the stuff they were doing
in the streets all day ask,

"But can I have a poster
to put it on my wall at night

so I can see it on my way to bed?"

?? were calling saying,

"I can tell you where
violence is not going to come from,

because we're committing
to the Peace Challenge."

And they kept their word.

When people said, "Oh,
it's not going to work

because somebody's
going to kill over West

or somebody's going
to kill over East,"

we said, "That doesn't matter.
It's about self-determination, yo.

You telling me you can't keep
this three- or six-block radius safe?"

And they would say,
"Oh, don't get it twisted.

It's going to stay safe around here."
And they kept their promise.

(Applause)