Hearse motorcade opens eyes to violence in Burton
Three small kids stared wide-eyed at the road outside their Burton home Sunday, unfazed by the roar of the F-18 passing low overhead.
Fighter jets with landing gear at the ready, they can see any day.
A motorcade of hearses. Now that will turn heads.
The children, with their T-shirts pulled around their faces like tiny lions' manes, stood at attention for the seemingly-endless procession of patrol cars, motorcycles and hearses from funeral homes as far as Estill and Hampton.
It was one of the last detours on the motorcade hour-long route from Garden's Corner to Burton, organized by two Beaufort-based groups, the S.C. Morticians Association District 1 and Citizens Against Violence Everywhere.
They wanted the sight to shock people and remind them what's at stake if they can't stamp out the rampant gun violence of the past year.
There were seven hearses in all, not even enough to carry each of the young victims of fatal shootings in northern Beaufort County in 2015.
They were empty on Sunday, but that didn't stop drivers from pulling over on the side of the road as a sign of respect and neighbors from filming the spectacle on their phones and iPads.
Some were solemn, others smiled.
C.A.V.E. founder Herbert Glaze, an assistant principal at Beaufort High School, said he didn't mind how people reacted to the procession as long as they thought about what it meant.
If the event changed just one person's path, he would be happy.
"If we can save one life, it would help," Glaze said. "One is a good number."
Northern Beaufort County had the makings of a sleepy country town on Sunday.
The procession passed relatively few cars and fewer people. Most of the families in their yards were supporting Glaze or burning yard waste.
So quiet, Gardens Corner, Seabrook, Burton and Dale didn't seem like the kind of places where eight people would have been slain this year, where another rally against violence was held just a week ago, or where people fear for their safety every day.
But they do, several said at following the motorcade Sunday afternoon at New Hope Christian Church on Parris Island Gateway.
Dionne Ramsey-Wilson, whose brother Steven Brown was shot and killed Nov. 1 at the Elks Lodge on Church Street, said she is grateful her son is serving time in federal prison for a separate shooting or else he might already be dead, too.
Stacie Green, who also knew Brown, said she avoids running errands after dark and might stop going to restaurants with her husband.
But she's more worried for her nephew, an Air Force service member who is visiting home next week, because "anything can happen" to a 20-year-old black male at a club.
"He's safer staying away," Green said. "Away from Beaufort."
Green said she also knew Antonio Brewer, a Port Royal man shot and killed while riding in a car with his infant daughter and the child's mother in March.
Arrests have not been made in either case.
While that added to some people's' frustration Sunday, the ralliers placed more responsibility on themselves and parents in the community to keep kids on track.
Glaze said he's tired of seeing people celebrated upon their returns from prison as if they had graduated college, and listening to the pride in students' voices when they speak of their own times behind bars.
Other students "worship them, they follow behind them," Glaze said.
After 44 years in the Beaufort County School District, it would be enough to drive him to the peace and quiet of his four-acre farm, where livestock keep his land trimmed and never talk back or make the wrong choices.
But in 2008, when the county was experiencing another spate of violence, Glaze decided he couldn't hide from the problems in his community.
One night that year, he dreamt of a prehistoric cave covered with drawings and markings and filled with a sense of peace and order.
Just outside the cave was a scene of horror and chaos. Men wielded hatchets and victims lay on the ground shot through with bullets.
When Glaze awoke, his pillow was soaked through with tears and he was left asking himself one question: "What are you going to do?"
His answer was creating CAVE, and similar groups for students, parents and communities against violence.
And while some people will try to ignore their work, they'll keep doing what they can to turn heads and make them listen.
The alternative -- to fill those hearses -- is not an option.
"Don't let us be your designated driver," Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen told the full church. "I'm not soliciting any business. Don't give me any."
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This story was originally published December 13, 2015 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Hearse motorcade opens eyes to violence in Burton."