Sept. 3, 2020 4:40p
(WGTD)---Former Vice-President Joe Biden met with about two-dozen residents at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha Thursday afternoon, telling them he believes the country is ready to address difficult issues such as racial injustice and inequality in the wake of the Jacob Blake police shooting in Kenosha and George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
"I think there's a chance for a real awakening here," the Democratic presidential candidate said. "I don't think we have any real alternative here but to fight," Biden said.
The event was billed as a community come-together as Kenosha tries to heal emotionally and physically from several days of unrest that included looting, vandalism and arson fires.
The location of the event was not announced in advance, and just a few dozen people--some supporting Biden's candidacy and others holding Trump signs--lined the streets.
Tim Mahone, chairman of the Mahone Foundation of Kenosha, emceed the event. The church--a modest brick structure located on 60th St.--is a midway point between the arson fires that occurred in the uptown area and to the east on 60th. Grace Lutheran is also home to a food pantry and a weekly hospitality center for homeless people and others who want to gather.
Shortly after flying in to Milwaukee's Mitchell Field, Biden met in an airport building with members of the Blake family, and spoke to Jacob Blake over the phone for about 15 minutes from his hospital bed. Biden said Blake was recently moved out of the hospital's critical care unit. "He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him," Biden said. "How whether if he walked again or not how he wasn't going to give up."
The phone conversation ended with Jacob's mother saying a prayer. She prayed for Jacob, the policeman who shot him and for change, Biden said.
The residents who were invited to participate sat in the church sanctuary, spaced out because of coronavirus. Wearing a mask, Biden spoke in subdued tones from the front of the church.
One of the residents who spoke was 31-year-old Porsche Bennett, a mother and Kenosha native who is an organizer for a Kenosha non-profit, Black Lives Activists. After introducing herself, Bennett said she couldn't stick to her prepared remarks and spoke extemporaneously. "I have to give you the truth of the people, and the truth of the matter is we are heavily angry," she said.
She said police continue to target minorities and that promised change never materializes. She said African-Americans want to be given the same treatment as others.
Barb DeBerge, who operates a family framing and art gallery business in the uptown area, spoke of how her shop was broken into and almost burned. A passerby grabbed some scarves that were set on fire and extinguished them outside. The store, with boarded-up windows, re-opened the next morning.
DeBerge said she was impressed by what followed. "The love and compassion in this community has been overwhelming, not only to us but the whole community," DeBerge said. "People are coming out and coming together showing love and respect toward each other. And it makes me so very proud to be in this community," she said.
Others who spoke were Kenosha Ald. Anthony Kennedy, Tim Thompkins, Angela Cunningham and Jeff Weidner, former president of the Kenosha firefighters union.
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