Common Sense Reborn

July 29

Just as an orchestra has an array of musical instruments that create beautiful music when played in harmony, so does God’s multiethnic family.  Our ethnic and cultural differences are instruments of grace that play the sound of love for the world to hear.  If we do not teach the world how to love, what hope is there?  None.  (Dr. Gray, Derwin, “How To Heal Our Racial Divide”, pg 161)

Day 159 of Russia’s war with Ukraine.  Day 59 of America’s deadly summer (I started this count from June 1).  Click on either count for an update to the wars that are gripping this world:  the war in Eastern Europe and the war within our own streets. 

So, I had a busy weekend.  I really did not plan to be away from y’all for a whole week, but the trend of violence in Savannah continued throughout the weekend and culminated with an event early Monday morning in what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong that resulted in a homicide.  That incident was different from anything I have experienced in my early career as a police officer because I was the first on scene and I was the only one to try to keep a young man alive for a few crucial minutes until EMS arrived.

Despite EMS whisking him away to our only trauma hospital, I knew he was not going to make it, and I was pretty pissed off.  When I watched the surveillance video of the murder, it made me even more upset.  It appeared to be a random attempted carjacking and the victim had tried to defend himself with his own weapon, which cost him his life.  We were a minute down the road when the call came out, and were unable to save him.

The words written above are a good summary of Chapter 7 of Dr. Derwin Gray’s fantastic book “How To Heal Our Racial Divide”.  I have been moved by Dr. Gray’s words throughout this book, but what are we doing America?  Why are we even having to talk about race in 2022?  There are bigger problems, HUGE problems in this country that we need to address.  If young men and women will gun down random people on the streets, without remorse (and this is happening all across this nation), we need to stop wasting time talking about race and start talking about the disrespect so many have over life, people’s peace and property, and the general disregard for living lives of peace and love.

What do we do?  Where do we go from here?  Well, as I have always said and pushed, we need to return to the source, and our greatest source material is the Holy Bible, and the teachings of Jesus Christ.  We have got to get this country to understand the truth of Christianity, the mission of the Church, and the purpose we all possess to spread the Gospel.  We have to love all people and display that love in a way that changes the course of this broken nation.

As I wrote this post, an alert came to my phone regarding a Deputy out of Smith County, Texas, who was struck by an intoxicated driver on his last day of field training.  He was 29-years-old and leaves behind his wife and three children. This is a disgrace. These disgusting acts of violence must be stopped.

We have to get out and make a difference.  As Christians, we must be bold and go after the evils in this world.  Time is up.  If not us, then who?