I guess it is necessary to repeat the obvious, since it must not be all that obvious: In Christ Jesus, All lives matter. Christianity was the first, and basically the only, religion, where all lives matter. The reason for that Christianity is more than a religion; it is a relationship with God in which we become adopted children and a full member of God’s family. We were created in the image of God, and God participated in our being “knit” together in our mother’s womb. He knew all about us, and had plans for us before we were born. That makes all the difference in who we are, whose we are and our personal worth. This value is intrinsic and real no matter race, mental handicap/challenge, physical handicap/challenge, sex, IQ, education; and age. In a truly Christian culture/legal system, the conceived in the womb is a person with all the rights and privileges of a human being; as well as the new born, the challenged child, the mentally retarded/challenged, the elderly. Simply put, In Christ, All lives matter.
To start with, we as a culture have since the Roe v. Wade ruling by the Not-so-Supreme Court we have legally murdered 55,000,000 of our most innocent humans, our preborn. We now know that many are born alive in partial birth abortions and their body parts harvested for resale and profit.
We are in a constant see-saw in our society between the rights of the individual and the rights of the individual standing next to us.
The questions are multitude, when do I have the right to defend myself? When should I turn the other cheek? When should I allow myself to be robbed and when should I fight back? What if a police officer misuses his authority, do I submit, or do I resist? How far can a man go in protecting his family? When do I join, or is there ever a place to join in civil disobedience? How far can the police legally go in enforcing the law? What if a police officer is a bully and disrespects the law he is to uphold?
As I said, the questions are many and most situations are varied and different. There are no simple answers. There are some national trends that are appearing as the ACLU and Civil liberty groups are taking control of our police departments. Most communities now are short handed in law enforcement, and the death of all too many police officers is a testimony of a known fact: When in a life and death decision facing a gun, 1 second is often too long to wait to make a decision.
What should have never been allowed the past few years we have the Executive branch of the Federal government telling the Department of Justice to not obey the laws of the Congress and we have seen racial, sexual, family violence coming from ever corner of our nations, anarchy has ruled by executive order and we have the street at war with the police and the police responding poorly out of fear for their jobs. We have watched the unofficial bureaucrats, the self authoritative ACLU becoming the arbitrator when authoritative management should be in control. The results across the country have been a spike in murder, crimes, wounded and murdered police men. We need a return to respect for the lawman, a respect for law and personal responsibility for our own behavior; being held accountable for our own behavior, actions and words.
My lovely granddaughter Mary Pinney, Doctor Pinney that is, and her husband Marc Pinney the lawyer, have a 501(c)(3) ministry to the families of fallen policemen in Southeast Texas as a memorial to her loving brother that was a policeman and passed to be with the Lord. I am very proud of their work and they were in El Paso not long ago speaking on police work. They dropped by to take Melba and I to lunch. As all our Christians involved in law enforcement can tell you, there are no easy answers. In this article I am leaning heavily on the writing and research of Heather Mac Donald, a Yale gradute, with an MA from Cambridge and law degree from Stanford law school. She is writing in the Hillsdale College national magazine, Imprimis of April, 2016.
“For almost 2 years, a protest movement known as, ‘Black lives matter’ has convulsed the nation.”
This all began right across the river from where my youngest daughter lives with her family in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown, aggressively attacked a policeman that had stopped him for interrogation and when he tried, according to the grand jury, to take the police officers gun; he was shot as an unarmed large teenager. This started days of riots, burning businesses and violent action, black on black and against the police. With the Department of Justice support this has led to violence all over the United States and unfair attacks on policemen and the wanton destruction of property that in many cases belonged to black businessmen and women.
Every year, approximately 6,000 blacks are murdered. This is a number greater than white and Hispanic homicide victims combined, ever though blacks are less than 13% of population. In Los Angeles, blacks between the ages of 20 to 24 die at a rate of 20 to 30 times the national average. Who is killing them? Not the police, and not white civilians, but other blacks. Black males between 14 and 17 commit homicide at 8 times the rate of all other races combined. “The police could end all lethal use of force today, it would have only trivial effect on black deaths-by-homicide rate. The largest death of black again in not on the drug street where it runs rampant, it is in the Planned Parenthood clinics where ten times the homicide rate, black children are killed by their parents. Black lives do matter, but apparently not to the Blacks.
The black violent crime rate would actually predict that 26% of police victims would be black. Officer’s force will occur where the police interact most often with violent criminals, armed suspects and those resisting arrest and that is the black neighborhood. In America’s largest counties in 2009, for example, blacks constituted 62% of robbery defendants; 57% of all murder defendants, 45% of all assault defendants –but 13% of the population.
A surprising fact for all the men and women marching with the Black Lives Matter banners, More than 40% of all cop killers over the last decade have been blacks. However, a larger proportion of white and Hispanic homicide deaths are a result of police killing. …. 12 % of all white and Hispanic homicide victims are killed by police officers while only 4% of black homicide victims.. If we were going to have a lives matter anti-police movement, IT WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATELY NAMED: “White and Hispanic lives matter.”
One more illustration before we look for a solution. New York City illustrates the problem. Blacks make up 23% of New York City’s population. They commit 75% of all shootings, 70% of all robberies, 66% of all violent crimes, add Hispanic shootings and you account for 98% of all gunfire in the city. Whites make up 33% of the population but commit 2% of the shootings, 4% of the robberies, and 5% of all violent crimes. These disparities mean that nearly every time a police officers is directed to a crime scene, he is looking for a minority suspect.
Now there is no reason to beat that horse any more. From the North East to the South West; from the North West to the South East in the United States, we have the same story. Blacks are killing blacks and the greatest racial inequity is the whites killing Blacks is in the Planned Parenthood clinics; the blacks killing blacks on the street and the Blacks killing white and Hispanic cops on the street. It is one thing to know the statics and another to seek and find an answer to a national problem.
As one that has lived in the South, I have had the crosses burned in my yard by the KKK for taking the side of the blacks in business and society. I had an adopted dark skinned Navajo son and when he and white/blond son Danny had their 9th birthday (they were 9 days difference in age), no one came to the party because of skin color. As a business man in a large Southern city I hired the first black woman to a sales job ( a Lamar Univ. grad), and nearly caused a riot until a son of the south, a Buick dealer, called thanking me and since I had broken the ice, he hired a black man, and everyone else had to play catch up.) In a radio debate on the most listened to station in the area a KKK member answered my question about burning down people’s houses with, “We never burn any one’s house unless they need it burned to teach them a lesson.” I may be significantly ignorant in the subject, but I have he scares to show I have shown up for the battles.
In the 1950 summer Max, Bob. Gary and myself were working with the street kids from the Watts in South Las Angeles and the elite kids from North Hollywood I got a chance to see the suspects and the victims up close and personal.
Scouting was big in the L.A. area and we put on shows in the Coliseum and prestige was front page pictures in the Los Angeles Times. We were there for it from all the prestigious Beach Cities where the elite and the beach bums mingled. The elite of the elite was to have a sterling Silver pair of Silver Moccasins. The reward for making the 75 miles Survival hike from Sierra Madre to Lake Jackson over the Angeles Crest Coastal mountains. Each summer week the L A Times spotlighted youth that had made the survival hike, The four of us had made the paper twice and attracted the attention of the Scouting Executive sitting in a down town office.
There was political pressure being put on the scouting executive to see that the boys from Watts and the elite kids from North Hollywood got to have a chance to make the Silver Moccasin. Both groups with the same problem; no men to guide the youth; either no daddy in the mix, or in the hills, Daddy was too busy to take the trip. And an additional problem, the scouting men of the area did not want the challenge to handle either group of kids, street tough gangs and spoiled brats.
The four of us were selected to see that a couple hundred kids from the poorest to the richest homes in the City of the Angels were to make the survival hike. They were to get their picture in the Times and everyone prayed they would live to tell about it. I directed the classes for preparation training, it was interesting. I learned real fast that if you give the street kids the name, they will play the game. If you give them respect, you got respect and cooperation. We had to divide into four groups. Four weeks in a row to hike the desert mountains where there were four water stops in 75 miles. By far the easiest groups were the Watts street kids. They understood rules and authority at the street level; Max and I were well equipped to be gang leaders.
I realize that was well over 60 years ago, but I believe some of the principles we learned are still applicable.
- You treat people with respect and demand respect in return, you can establish a working and respectful relationship.
- You most often get what you expect and demand from people.
- There is no room for making excuses, alliances for race, or being unfair in what you demand and expect, everyone is equal on the trail.
- You trained for success; you educated to accomplish the task at hand.
- You cut no slack, you expected everyone to perform, to do their task, the carry their load. No excuses.
- You learned to do your share because you were part of a winning team and everyone carried their load.
- Everyone pays their own “rent”. They work for the glory of the team, not for a personal pay check.
- We start together and we finish together, no one left behind.
It is clear from the statistics that the problems in the black and Hispanic communities starts in early teens. If we would truly seek an answer, we would get over the child work laws and start a mentoring training program where they would be trained in the repair and building trades. We are a throw-a-way society today because no one is trained to repair anything. We could build a job core program that puts teens to work and paid them a stipend and prepared them for the work force at an age where being treated like a man is appealing to them. By the time they are 16 their habits are set. Let them start learning a trade at 12-years-of-age. Turn this program to industry; keep the government out of it. The government can mess up a one-man parade.
The same way with moral training, make it the church’s job, keep government out of it. Churches should only be tax exempt if they are producing good citizens, productive citizens for society. The church has to be the church Jesus designed, and open its doors to all races. Ethnic background and use their facilities for remedial teaching, and an open door to all, making all welcome and an important part. There are to be no second class citizens in the kingdom. Everyone deserves a chance to succeeded, no one gets a free ride.
This must be started in the pre-teen age to work. Thus, in the preachers, priests, workers and youth there must be a zero tolerance for alcohol and drugs of any kind of sexual misconduct. There can not be one standard for the youth and another for the adults. The system will only work with a moral and virtuous people and everyone must do their share. It is utopic! I realize that, it is time we trusted God and stepped out in faith as if God were still God and God stilled cared. What is being done is not only not working, it is giving the government the opportunity to create racial prejudice, and by giving the drug runners free trade and the government ability to do evil we are killing off our people, not helping them. I love Mexico, but not the hundred billion in drugs that are coming across the border. The savings in health care of druggies would pay for Señor Trump’s wall and save more USA lives than it would hold back in illegal immigrants. Why are Americans allowing themselves to be lead by the nose by the government and media, can anyone think for themselves anymore?
The other side of this problem that must be addressed is that every consciences policeman is hesitating now to do his or her job. They are not perusing crime with all their talents and abilities. They are afraid of racial profiling, they are afraid of being charged with unacceptable violence and bullying and using excessive force. As a result, all too many officers are being shot or criminals are being allowed to continue in their crime. Police work must be done by the professionals and the man on the street is not in a position to tell the officer how to do their job.
The lapel cams are a welcome addition, and will protect the officer more than to cause him to be convicted of some suspected crime. Good record keeping and good evidence gathering will protect the innocent and make every person aware they are on camera and that they need to be at their best. There must be an on going training program for officers and advancement must come from within so there is a reason to work hard for advancement. There must be recognition of men and women that do a good job on the street. This included benefits for the whole family so mama and daddy’s work is important to the whole family. If a policeman’s family was given a family vacation of note, perhaps mama and son would get behind daddy so he could do a better job; perhaps a long weekend at Disney World or the like.
Now let’s get down to where the rubber meets the road and be down to earth, dog dirty, truthful with each other. Any person running for office that says, “I will never raise taxes.” Is a liar, stupid, or thinks you are stupid. Now, If he or she says, “I will never raise taxes until I have cut out all the “pork” fat in government spending, and we are applying the taxes collected first before I raised taxes, he is thinking like an honest man and one worth trusting with your vote. We are trillions in debt and I have news for you, the rich uncle you had planned to pay that out, is in the poor house collecting cans to survive. We are the richest country in the world and we miss spend Billions every day. We spend for the wrong thing to save money on ideas that would cost now but save us money in the long run.
I have lived and worked on the street for a long time so excuse me for drifting into almost street talk to get your attention. We have a major black problem that is the womb of the robbery, violent crime, murder problem on the street. The black families are basically one parent, uneducated, poor, and stuck on dirt poor street with no light at the end of the tunnel. The government programs have made neighborhood and community workers wealthy and left the poor working single mother on her own. This is true of Democrat and Republican programs a like. Our monopolitic government all agreed, “care for your bro, and screw the single working mother, she can collect more child support if she get pg.” Check the statistics, the major single parent home is black, the ones in prison for street crimes are black, the kids in these homes are running the street at 7 instead of being in school and no one is checking, caring or doing anything about it. An early teen on the street can’t find a man to guide him right. No work to provide any needs, no respect at school, no future, no hope, just one thing I can do to get respect, “screw a chick, get her pregnant to prove I am a man, then abandon her to screw the government as well”.
We have a problem of near Noah proportion. It will cost us some money to handle. We must pay now, or we will pay later. Now there was a hundred years ago a solution by Margaret Sanger as she planned—Planned Parenthood to solve it—Negro genocide. Hopefully you have rejected that plan then and now. I am here going to quote the 19 June, 2016, LOOKOUT from Standard Publishing Company of the Christian Churches Churches of Christ. Not a left wing socialist rag. This is from an article written by Melissa Wuske, page 14:
“Since the Nixon Administration began their War of Drugs in 1971, America’s prison population has risen from 300,000 to 2.300,000 (remember the constant operational and upkeep on the average prison in the US is over one hundred thousand per prisoner, per year; YOU DO THE MATH).
“Drug offenses make up half of those convictions, and two-third of the prison population are people of color…..Whites and blacks use at about the same rate. African Americans are far more likely to be arrested for using and selling drugs…
“In a recent Article in Harper’s Magazine, journalist Dan Baum stated that this racial bias is no accident. In a 1994 interview with JOHN EHRLICHMAN, Nixon’s domestic policy chief, shared the Nixon administration policy behind the drug initiatives.”
“In the 1968 campaign, Nixon had two enemies against his re-election, the anti war group and the black population; Nixon could not outlaw either. His policy was, marijuana for the Hippies and vilify them as druggies. Then equate the increase in heroin use to the blacks and then criminalize both heavily. In this way we could interrupt those communities; raid their homes, break up their meetings and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Ehrlichman said, ‘did we know we were lying about the drug, or course we did.’”
As Paul said in Romans, and I have quoted many times, there are no good guys.
So we helped create the mess on our streets. So, either Blue dog Democrats or Red/white/blue Republicans, they all have a dozen one-way trips to Hell without Jesus Christ.
Lets go to a place Paul sent a young preacher to find an answer, a place deep in dog do do de pew. Paul agreed with their own writers that they were, “a rebellious people, mere talkers, deceivers and liars and evil brutes as well as gluttons;” the vacation land? the Isle of Crete.
Titus 2:3: 3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God
Now I can hear women in this area say, “We don’t want to do that, we deserve a break from the kids that left home 15 years ago…” Yes, they rejected the young girls coming to Ladies camp because they needed some R&R time. The truth is, everywhere I have seen this scripture rejected the women involved had gotten Spiritually “fat”, emotionally “crippled”, and Biblically “Out of focus.” There I said it, and I am glad; even a preacher ought to tell the truth now and then..
Now let me tell you how to save a hundred million dollars in our restructuring, retraining, rehabilitating the Black/poor America crime infested side of town. Remember that a $1.00 saved = $4.00 tax dollars collected, the cost of the IRS.
Across America we have thousands of churches, most only used on Sunday morning. A shame, God had a better plan, then the churches hired professional preachers and things went down hill from there.
Those churches can be turned into full five day a week training schools, or loose their tax exemption, there that was simple.
I would hope those churches have retired, handicapped, hired people that could do well to work 40 hours a week to pay their rent on living under the grace of Jesus the Messiah, and the flag of the United States, and get a reasonable paycheck for their efforts. These people could be trained and put on a salary to implement Paul’s plan for 2016 AD. Trump has been talking job programs. Train these Christian people, I would hope it would be just a refresher course, to implement the instruction to the older women. I am sure all our churches have been doing this all along. What? you didn’t even know it was in the Book! No wonder America is going to Hell in a Hand basket. AT ANY RATE WE CAN FOR A FEW MILLION EQUIP America to reach out in love to our family of the darker persuasion.
Now the reason I know we can do it with a pure heart and not looking down on anyone, most of us have been through some of the same problems, or have family that has. We are all saved by grace through faith anyway. So, when you get honest with the word of God, there is no room for anyone looking down on anyone.
There is no free ride, now lets take a long hard look at a couple hundred thousand of these black and brown men behind bars on drug charges. If they have a wife still single and children, if they have cooperated in prison, if mama will accept them home and they will go with a stipend and a promise to get a job, live at home and go to the church training school and get man teaching from Titus 2:
2 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
Now here is how to keep living at home, random drug testing several times a month, by visit not appointment. Must live at home, no drinking, no drugs, must work if only sweeping the street in front of the church at first, and taking training to be a dad of note, and take control with love of his family. Fail to perform, back in the slammer. You say I am dreaming! Well let me ask you, “With out the Holy Spirit, and his help, isn’t all Christianity a dream world of fantasy that is impossible? Isn’t that why so many settle for a cultural imitation?
Now the $50,000.00 cost to maintain a prisoner in an already constructed prison drops to $12,000 a year monthly stipend. This alone could lower tax rate.
Now we are training mama and daddy to be just that. Part of that training is budgeting their resources’. This includes that the stipend money comes from the government via a debit card with dual reporting, one to the family from the bank and one to the parole officer. There must be controls and safeguards.
Now we get to the Titus teaching.
- Teach moral, reverent, not slanders, busy bodies, etc..
- Teach them drug, Alcohol control.
- Teach them what is good.. the good life..
- Love their husbands.
- Love their children
- Self control and pure
- Busy at home..
- Be kind and subject to their husband in Ephesians 5:21 style of being in subjection to each other.
- Keepers of the word of God.
Upon successful graduation, successful home life, give them a weekend vacation for the whole family. You must celebrate what you want to accomplish.
This could be done for somewhere under $75.000.00 per family. This would be way less than we are spending now on welfare, food stamps, incarceration, and political pork. Besides, after a year of this training, the payroll deductions and taxes will repay.
It is time to get the government back to working under the Constitution, the church under the Bible and folks back in control of their own life. That is how we did things when America was great, and we can be great again if we get a president, congress, governors, and county commissioners with the testicle fortitude to cause it to happen. Of course to do it you would have to hair lip the Pope, castrate the Democrat and Republican party officials, break the lazy habit of preachers that are on full salary and consider themselves in retirement, and turn off the TV. Black lives do matter. White lives matter, brown lives matter. Blue lives matter; yes in Christ. All lives matter…
