Everybody has their own way of coping with things – one of them being prayer.
University students, faculty and community members, joined hands at Memorial Tower on Monday evening for a “Unity Prayer.”
University mass communication graduate student Myron Smothers orchestrated the prayer meeting to help lessen the stress and confusion in light of the recent protests for Alton Sterling.
Smothers used social media to invite whoever wanted to join him to meet at the Tower.
“I wanted to do this to, also, be therapeutic for people because people need to get those emotions out,” Smothers said. “This outlet allowed a lot of people to step out in the center and just talk about what’s going and talk about how they’re feelings. I’m sure some people got some help with some of the things they heard, as well.”
The attendees joined hands and created a circle in front of the tower. Multiple people stepped to the middle to give accounts of how they felt about the Alton Sterling shooting, the multiple protests and the present state of the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Attendees also came forward to pray.
Dean of Students Mari Fuentes-Martin said she was out of town the entire weekend and couldn’t participate in any of the events held for Alton Sterling, so she was happy to join in the prayer event. She said she loved that many of the events this past week were coordinated by students.
“That’s what I love about this event – this is young, promising, smart, peaceful young people who are ready to transform the world and that inspires me,” Fuentes-Martin said. “This is the kind of movement that I wanted to be at so I’m just grateful that I was here to be a part of it.”
Fuentes-Martin said anger is often quick to arise from conflict but “prayer and introspection” lasts longer. She said she likes that the youth are asking themselves “What difference can I make?”
Bianca Webb, a University mass communication graduate student and LSU homecoming queen, said she drove down to participate in any and everything she could be a part of as well as helping out.
“From my personal belief, prayer outweighs everything. Pray about everything, fear nothing, is what I was taught. I do know when more than one comes together, then change happens.”
Webb said she helped pass out water to protesters along the “Wave March for Justice” route on Sunday.
The youth-led march began at Wesley United Methodist Church and ended in front of the Capitol where some high school students from the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition spoke.
Some gave spoken word, some sung and others prayed.
The Coalition then led protesters back to the church where it ended. A few short hours later, as some protesters lingered and others joined, the impromptu protest turned sour when police showed up in riot gear and protesters were arrested.
Webb and Smothers attended both protests, witnessing a peaceful event turn into chaos. This is when Smothers’ idea for the prayer meeting formed, he said, because after he left the protest he was confused.
Webb said she agreed with the idea.
“Being an LSU alum, I felt like it [the prayer meeting] was necessary,” Webb said. “Baton Rouge is a place I made my home away from home. I’m an Atlanta native and I came here because there was no way I could sit 500 miles away and watch the turmoil, the distress, the fret and everything going on, and just be so passionate behind a computer screen. That’s not me.”
