since the rally held Feb. 1, 2003,<\/a> in opposition to the U.S.\u2019 pending invasion of Iraq. <\/p>\n\u201cWe had no idea what to expect,\u201d Pryor said. \u201cWe thought the weather might keep it from happening but it\u2019s an incredible turnout. It\u2019s great to see people come out and speak on an issue of importance to themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n
Figgins, who is black and a dancer with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Company, spoke in direct terms to the predominantly white crowd. Floyd\u2019s death May 25 might have woken up white America to the plight of black America, but the real work must begin, she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge Floyd is the catalyst, so why is everybody making such a ruckus about one man?\u201d Figgins said. \u201cIt\u2019s not one man. It\u2019s the entire system that needs to be thrown out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Figgins urged marchers to put pressure on those people with power and influence, and to be relentless if they are to eradicate bigotry and oppression toward blacks and other minorities. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know most of y\u2019all know somebody, somebody important,\u201d Figgins said. \u201cYou know a D.A., you know a mayor, you know somebody that\u2019s making legislation. You know somebody that owns arts organizations that make the biggest moves in this town. You know those people. Call them out and hold them accountable. Do you have people on your staff, of color? What are their positions? Janitor? Do you have one? Think about that. How many artists have you seen in this community? How many black artists have you put their work in your galleries. … Let\u2019s start seeing the world as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rev. Jerry Herships of Aspen Community Church, who also attended last weekend\u2019s rallies, said nationwide protests have led to such results as Wednesday\u2019s arrests of three other former officers for Floyd\u2019s death, while upping the charge to second-degree murder against former officer Derek Chauvin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work is not done,\u201d Herships said. \u201cThat just means they are under arrest. There is still a trial to come. And there other trials that have not happened and we don\u2019t know if they will. Trayvon Martin. Breonna Taylor. Freddie Gray. And many, many others. Now, we are not against police; we are against lousy police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herships called Aspen police the \u201cgold standard\u201d for law enforcement, but added nationwide \u201cthere is so much injustice, there is so much hatred, there is so much violence, that we cannot stop the work that we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Self-examination regarding racism was a major theme of the rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize there are things I too have to practice,\u201d said Sajari Simmons, a black resident of Glenwood Springs, at times struggling for words. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve been silent for so long, it hurts to even talk this loud. I would much rather be at home with my 5-year-old daughter and our new puppy, but I don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simmons continued, \u201cI know that I have had very surface-level interactions with many of you, but only because your white privilege and your biases were under the surface. I did not judge you. I still showed you love and now that you have cracked open that surface just a little, I look forward to going deeper in my relationship with all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old Snowmass resident Janet Raczak was among Aspen\u2019s set of longtime residents in attendance. She said Floyd\u2019s killing has instigated her to let go of her complacency regarding racism. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a mistake for me to be silent for way too long,\u201d she said, noting a close black friend of hers had told her over the years that \u201cI\u2019ll never understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attending Saturday\u2019s demonstration, Raczak, was her way of not remaining quiet.<\/p>\n
She held a sign quoting the MLK, which read, \u201cIn the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
A demonstration is set again from 10 a.m. to noon. Sunday. Participants will meet at Wagner Park. <\/p>\n
rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/p>\n
via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Black Lives Matter marchers took to the streets and parks of Aspen on Saturday with chants against racism and police brutality, culminating with them lying facedown with their hands behind their backs for nearly 9 minutes \u2014 the amount of time a Minneapolis police officer pinned George Floyd to the ground before he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2459241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news","7":"category-photos"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-08 08:53:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2459252,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459241\/revisions\/2459252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}