Day 236
It's three days 'til Christmas, and the news has us all depressed.
I generally stay away from talking about the news, not just because it makes me so sad so often, but because it's too easy to touch on nerves, and cause more grief than I intended.
So I think today I'd just like to briefly summarize what's been going on lately, and try to make some sense of it all...
Some law enforcement officers in some places have reacted hastily or wrongly in the process of otherwise doing their jobs well. People have died who should not have, or who might not have, had things been handled differently. People have protested, as is both their right and their need, as sometimes voicing our emotions is an absolute need, and is the only way our hearts can be heard. In some cases though, civilians and law enforcement officers alike have reached a breaking point in their emotional states, and have said and done things to only cause more pain and more hurt.
I'm proud to call myself a Democrat for many different reasons, but I'd like to just offer, in case anyone's curious, my opinions about Reverend Al Sharpton and Mayor Bill de Blasio. And that opinion is that I'm not a fan of either of them.
The Reverend is too often a publicity-hungry ambulance chaser, seeking the spotlight more than he seeks to spread God's love. We need civil rights' activists, and we need strong, loud voices, but we do not need his particular brand of hatred masked in the cassock of faith. And Mayor de Blasio, for all the good he's done and other issues I agree with him on, is handling this all wrong. He's trying to make everyone happy, but is doing the complete opposite. He needs to admit this now quickly, and fix the growing tensions he's helping to create.
Two police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were killed this weekend in New York City by a deranged (off the range) individual. Ismaaiyl Brinsley was not some official representative of any cause or camp, rally or party. He was simply deranged and demented to a very sick degree. The two officers lost their lives right before Christmas in a completely senseless act of cold murder.
Here's what I believe with all my heart though. And this is the part as many as 98% of you will disagree with me on, or strongly doubt. I believe that seconds after the officers were shot, and the man who pulled the trigger killed himself, they all arrived in heaven, and the tears and heartache there were both immense and powerful. Tremendous healing began immediately, or soon after, and this sick individual who killed these good men is now getting the kind of healing only God can give him, because God is more forgiving than humans are of one another.
We've got a city, a nation, and a world looking at everything that's been happening, and emotions are running high. But beyond the emotions so many of us feel, there are some that matter more. And those belong to the families of the fallen: the fallen in Missouri and the fallen in New York. Pain is colorless, and felt by all. It's sharp and horrid, and it's deeply wounding for so many of all places and backgrounds, uniforms and skin colors alike. It's just plain awful.
Richard Gonzalez, Officer Ramos's cousin, had this to say in the aftermath of the shooting in Brooklyn: "The Ramos Family forgives him, because God forgave us. We don't blame him, we forgive him. If it were the other way around, Rafael would say the same words. He'd forgive him."
Christmas is just three days away, and two more families are now in the grip of despair and mourning. Two more families are now caught up in an ongoing conversation told through megaphones and pulpits alike. And two more families are left with a senseless tragedy which has taken their loved ones away.
As Christmas approaches, I pray for peace. I pray for a calm to settle on the hearts and minds of all men and all women everywhere. I pray for it to settle on their souls like soft snow. I pray for faith, that those in mourning may look to heaven with an unbreakable knowledge of all that is well there, away from this earth. And I pray that we may all see in each face we meet the face of our brothers and our sisters in this one holy family all crying together.
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