Since Jan. 1, 2016, there have been 132 homicides in the city of Memphis: midway through August, that puts us at one murder basically every two days.
Imagine that: A city where someone is murdered every two days. I know some cities have worse statistics, some way fewer.
The sense is that this is senseless: Just this past weekend,a relative became one of those statistics. It seems as if the suspect confessed, saying he shot and fatally wounded my relative after an argument.
Part of me is screaming, "Give me more than this . . . from an argument?"
This is really just an open rant, a rave that someone, somewhere will listen: People, put away your guns and deal with your anger issues. The Bible warns us to be slow to wrath . . . perhaps, this is why. One young man is gone, leaving behind a newborn child, a grieving father and mother and siblings and countless other friends who are shocked at a "good life taken too soon."
There is no quick and easy answer:
. . . and just like we ranted and raved a few weeks ago, after July 4th, when the police shootings of unarmed black men seemed to ratchet up to a new level of insanity, we're ranting and raving --- and praying --- again.
This insanity has to stop: We're "Mourning Memphis: Our Lives Matter." ALL. OF. OUR. LIVES. MATTER!! Visit the Commercial Appeal's Homicide Tracker website and look at the faces of those murdered . . . mainly young black men.
Memphis is a city of about 655,000 people, more than half of whom --- 63.3 perent --- of whom are African American or black. And who do you think is being killed? A scan of the Memphis Commercial Appeal Homicide Tracker site shows an overwhelming number of black and brown faces, mostly of men . . . in cases in which "The primary suspect is unknown."
I'm reminded of the powerful T-shirt one of my New York City friends made decades ago: The front of the T-shirt read "Those Killed By Them," and showed multiple rows and columns of stick-figures, representing blacks killed by whites during the 1980s and 1990s. The back of the T-shirt read: "Those Killed By Us," and showed the same rows and columns of stick-figures.
Hey, World, 'We're also killing us . . . ' I'm sure the mother or father grieving a child cut down by violence could care less that that deadly violence came from black or white hands: their child is still unbelievably, inconceivably gone . . . gone!
We're Mourning Chicago . . . we're Mourning Everyplace where random and not so-random-violence is ripping apart our famlies, our neighborhoods, our cities, our fabric.
Can we really say, "enough." "I've had enough?"
* Freedom From Unnecessary Negatives ~ http://ffunsaveyouth.org/
* Juvenile Intervention and Faith-Based Followup, http://www.jiffyouth.org/
* Operation Safe Community
~ One Memphis father's story
Imagine that: A city where someone is murdered every two days. I know some cities have worse statistics, some way fewer.
The sense is that this is senseless: Just this past weekend,a relative became one of those statistics. It seems as if the suspect confessed, saying he shot and fatally wounded my relative after an argument.
Part of me is screaming, "Give me more than this . . . from an argument?"
This is really just an open rant, a rave that someone, somewhere will listen: People, put away your guns and deal with your anger issues. The Bible warns us to be slow to wrath . . . perhaps, this is why. One young man is gone, leaving behind a newborn child, a grieving father and mother and siblings and countless other friends who are shocked at a "good life taken too soon."
There is no quick and easy answer:
. . . and just like we ranted and raved a few weeks ago, after July 4th, when the police shootings of unarmed black men seemed to ratchet up to a new level of insanity, we're ranting and raving --- and praying --- again.
This insanity has to stop: We're "Mourning Memphis: Our Lives Matter." ALL. OF. OUR. LIVES. MATTER!! Visit the Commercial Appeal's Homicide Tracker website and look at the faces of those murdered . . . mainly young black men.
Memphis is a city of about 655,000 people, more than half of whom --- 63.3 perent --- of whom are African American or black. And who do you think is being killed? A scan of the Memphis Commercial Appeal Homicide Tracker site shows an overwhelming number of black and brown faces, mostly of men . . . in cases in which "The primary suspect is unknown."
I'm reminded of the powerful T-shirt one of my New York City friends made decades ago: The front of the T-shirt read "Those Killed By Them," and showed multiple rows and columns of stick-figures, representing blacks killed by whites during the 1980s and 1990s. The back of the T-shirt read: "Those Killed By Us," and showed the same rows and columns of stick-figures.
Hey, World, 'We're also killing us . . . ' I'm sure the mother or father grieving a child cut down by violence could care less that that deadly violence came from black or white hands: their child is still unbelievably, inconceivably gone . . . gone!
We're Mourning Chicago . . . we're Mourning Everyplace where random and not so-random-violence is ripping apart our famlies, our neighborhoods, our cities, our fabric.
Can we really say, "enough." "I've had enough?"
~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~
~ Boots On the Ground in Memphis* Freedom From Unnecessary Negatives ~ http://ffunsaveyouth.org/
* Juvenile Intervention and Faith-Based Followup, http://www.jiffyouth.org/
* Operation Safe Community
~ One Memphis father's story
Next: "We Will Survive . . ."
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