Roses were everywhere in Flushing the first day of June, flowing over the front fence of Flushing Friends Meeting, in the gardens around the side and blooming from ground plants at the edge of the burial ground.
Flushing is the birthplace of religious tolerance in the United States, where hard-working, decent individuals joined together to reject all forms of violence and claim their right to meet as followers of Jesus.
The first time I came to Flushing was in Sep 2009 when I stayed at the Flushing YMCA. I participated in a memorial service at a nearby La Guardia Airport hotel. Members of the Nigerian Democratic Liberty Forum spent a day remembering a Nigerian lawyer who rejected theft, patronage and violence that has consumed Nigeria since the end of the Biafran War in 1970. Gani Fanwehinmi. Since then, I have seen other Nigerians rise in his image as Nigeria has descended deeper and deeper into chaos as organized crime has taken over its federal government.
