Vimeo.com Deleted ALBB's Entire Account After Publishing This Video In Response Flags At Half Staff
/
I did not know who CK was. As I learned about who he was - from his own quotes and spoken word - I was left with several dirty tastes in my mouth. I did not want to step into this issue, as I select very tightly which issues to get involved in - outside of local shopping and coffee choices for Beacon. And murders in town and City of Beacon local government issues. That in and of itself is a lot.
Sunday was a day of sermons. Sunday is a day that I sometimes post a message of someone else’s at the beginning of the day that is of heavier meaning, and then we proceed skipping through the day at the Beacon Farmer’s Market, Beacon Flea Market, and the rest of the mile long Main Street and back road side streets.
I published a brief clip of the sermon delivered by Pastor Howard-John Wesley of the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He opens by saying he is “overwhelmed” at the federal order of having the flags lowered to half staff. He stated that CK should not have been assassinated. And declared CK a racist. He asked how he could be asked to respect a man who did not respect him.
Here’s the transcript:
CK did not deserve to be assassinated. But I'm overwhelmed. Seeing the flags of the United States of America and Half Staff calling this nation to honor and venerate a man who was an unapologetic racist and spending all of his life sewing seeds of division and hate into this land.
And hearing people with selective rage who are mad about CK but didn't give a damn about Melissa Hortman and her husband when they were shot down in their home, tell me I ought to have compassion of the death of a man who had no respect for my own life!
I am sorry, but there is nowhere in Bible where we are taught to honor evil. And how you die does not redeem how you lived. You do not become a hero in your death, when you were a weapon of the enemy in your life.
I can abhor the violence that took your life. But I don't have to celebrate how you chose to live.
I. Am. Overwhelmed.
-Pastor Howard-John Wesley of the Alfred Street Baptist Church
Video originally posted by Etan Thomas.
After posting that, I was thanked by a few people, including the pastor from the Salvation Army, who shared the direction of what she delivered in her sermon that Sunday to her congregation in Beacon.
I was also called a foul name by extended Beacon community member Tracy Eraka Pavlovic. She likes to call me names when I call out ICE or write about race or an injustice. This time, it was “Nice job jackass!!!!!!” with two dark angry emoji faces.
A few readers asked about the flags being lowered to half staff. They assumed they were lowered for 9-11 and not for CK. A few readers gently reached out to ask. I edited my original Instagram post to imply nothing about the flags locally, and deleted the duplicated Facebook post because I could not edit it (technically, if you duplicate Instagram to Facebook, you can edit IG but not FB). While I researched the half mast issue locally and federally, I wanted the wording neutral. Even though I later learned that I was initially correct and did need to have edited. But.
On Monday, after my research, I sat down to write the article. Step 1 is to embed a video I published at Instagram into articles here at this website. I use Vimeo to do this. It’s cozier and less invasive that YouTube, so I have felt comfortable there.
Two minutes - literally 2 minutes - after I published the video to Vimeo, the video platform terminated my entire account. They didn’t just flag the video, or take the individual video down. The entire account disappeared. I emailed them requesting to reinstate it, believing their choice to be extreme and in disagreement even with their flagging on the content.
You see, the Pastor called white man CK “racist.” it is for that reason I believe Vimeo deleted the account.
I have since recorded a response video to this, which you can watch here. To embed the video here to this website, I would need to upgrade on this platform and pay a higher fee. I’ll think about it. I have other bills to pay first, but we’ll see. I could go to YouTube, but I don’t like feeding Google’s Alphabet anymore. But. Maybe.
In the meantime, watch Pastor Howard-John Wesley’s message here. Then watch my response to Vimeo’s action.
