Just like you we are trying to wrap our heads, hearts and understanding around what happened. How could anyone slaughter young children in such a cold blooded way. How could anyone slaughter……
Interesting is the fact that the massacre at the TOPS Market in Buffalo had headlines screaming about African Americans shot…… In UVALDE, where most of the young students and teachers who were shot were Latinx, the silence on that fact is deafening.
We are becoming a country which Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany would recognize and understand immediately. Instead of individual concentration camps in different areas where Jews and those who objected to their treatment were kept and where they were killed, the entire United States of America has become a concentration camp.
Not that long ago, Jews were killed. Not long after that there were the Mother Emanuel Church killings. Not long after that there was the George Floyd killing and many others who did not get the news media coverage that his killing received. And then there was the TOPS killing of African Americans and now the killing of so many Latinx and other children.
No, we have not forgotten the killings of white children which preceded all of this. We just wonder if those were not the examples which the White Supremacists took to heart and saw the possibilities to do what has happened over these past years. After all, where and who paid for those killings? What changed in this society because of them – to stop or at least mitigate the killings? No price to pay, the slaughter becomes unbearable to most of us and something to celebrate to others. Those who celebrate grow over time and the rest of us pay a very high price./
We are not dealing with this level of carnage at all. and we don’t see any signs that we will begin to deal with this. We are, however, dealing with what allows it, encourages it and sets the stage for all of what is happening in the killing fields.
As you move ahead in business what you discover is the lack of ethics and integrity which faces you on every level and at every turn. You discover how bigotry has infected the institutional structure of this country and you see this group of people who feel as though they have the right to be “better than” and anything that even hints at destroying that right gets run over. As it gets run over, those who are not on the front line with the White Supremacists are contributing to the success of their movement by the constant all powerful denials which come whenever you try to raise up and talk about the racism, sexism, and all the other -isms allowed and encouraged. That denial is the ground out of which these weeds grow.
Most encouraging are the steps being taken by institutions to bring about change. You can see in their efforts, however, that they realize real change will only come when the structures which were created by slavery, the genocide of American Indians and the destruction of several generations of immigrants who have a very hard time until some are recognized as “real Americans’ – if they came from Northern European countries – and others just struggle.
The National Rifle Association – which is doing much to generate this carnage seems to have its leadership and membership deep into the muck with Russia and Putin. Looking at the timing of some of these massacres, it goes along with something happening from that part of the world to distract from the media covering what Russia is doing. This time, it totally distracted the media away from the war against Ukraine which Russia is now fighting with the same level of ethics that this war in the United States, totally and furiously causing unbelievable evil, is being fought against its “minorities.”
To stop this, truth telling is desperately needed. Not excuse making, not denials, not ignoring of the signs of trouble around the corner, not encouraging young people who are already problematic to do some of what has happened, not passing the buck.
Those doing wrong know who they are. Those making excuses so they can collect millions of dollars for their political campaigns know why they are. Those encouraging the young men who caused this massacre instead of helping them know who they are.
We are a country with a lot of evil in its history and it needs to be seriously and truthfully addressed and changed.
When, O God, will we see ourselves as we are and not as we project ourselves to be -hiding behind images. Help us to have the courage to step out on our convictions and to uphold your truth, your way, your love. The cost to continue getting mired in all of this sin is very high. Clear our eyes so we can see with accuracy the joy, the happiness, the greatness of goodness.
Amen?
