The past 3 days have been extremely painful to look at the news and to look at social media.  As if the senseless deaths of 3 people, wasn’t enough to turn you stomach, the fighting amongst people posting and trolling, has made me need to just go bang my head against a wall.  Anytime things like this happen, you are going to have people become irrational, people are going to be scared, people are going to need to vent.  But seeing posts that start calling others names and belittling the original poster or others commenting, how is the world is that even going to be productive or constructive.  

ignorant

adjective

1.lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned:

2.lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact:
3. uninformed; unaware.

4.due to or showing lack of knowledge or training:

What I want to vent about here is the senselessness of what has happened over the last couple of days in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.  No I don’t have all the facts, but I have seen multiple articles and the videos, and have been sick to my stomach all day over this.  What I don’t understand, is the abuse of using lethal force is these situations.  Self defense/Fear for your life has a fine line.  Writing this as a Black Belt, I was always trained to know that there was a line for self-defense.  If I were to get into a fight and knock the other person down and control them until someone comes, that would be fine.  If I were to knock this person out and then continue to hit them while they were on the ground, I have crossed a line because, I am no longer in danger.  This is based on the assumption that there are no weapons also.  And I won’t lie, weapons make things go to another level, but what we have seen in the past couple days, while these men were carrying guns, neither appear to have been reaching for them.  I wasn’t there,  I can’t talk to that point, but what I can say is that 2 men were killed in front of people, one in front of his fiancé and a 4 year old.  This is the one that tears me up the most.  There was a 4 year old girl in the back seat.  This man told the office that he had CCDW, and had it on him.  He was reaching for his license when he was shot 4 times.  The officer’s voice in the video that the fiancé started is panicked, while she remains calm.  This is senseless.  

Baton Rouge, a father is shot multiple times after being already put on the ground.  6 shots into someone that is already down.  Senseless.

I have friends and family in law enforcement, I do not envy their job.  In this line of duty, you know that you are putting your life on the line, you are sworn to serve and protect.  Where are the stun guns, tazers, or wounding shots. And I know that for every story like these there are 9 more stories of police officers doing good things, but at the end of the day, even one senseless killing is too many.

Now, as I’m writing this, we have vigilantes in Dallas, shooting police officers.  Violence breeds violence.  Eye for an eye tooth for a tooth no longer works.  We have to realize this at some point people.  What is this solving?  Nothing at all.  We just have more dead people, more fatherless children and husbandless wifes.  

Matthew 22:36-40New International Version (NIV)

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Racism, ignorance, and lack of good ol common sense, is tearing our country apart.  America once, the land of opportunity (for some), has shown itself in the recent years as it’s true self.  A country of power hungry priveledged people.  A country where the bullies get their way.  A country where if you don’t like something or someone, or you like someone’s something you just take it from them.  This ignorance has been a staple of our country for years, we all think about WW2, and Hitler rounding up all of the Jews, but what about our own country, rounding up all Japanese Americans or those that looked Asian, and putting them in internment camps.  No the government didn’t mass murder them, but still they were forced to give up their homes, businesses, everything with no choice.  

To all of you who have gotten you panties in a wad over the last year with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and been offended because you feel that All lives matter, it’s not that anyone is saying that there is a difference in the value of one life to another.  It comes down to those are the lives that are being ripped away in such public ways by senselessness, that it can’t go unnoticed.  The best comparison that I have seen on this was in a comment today comparing BLM to Breast Cancer Awareness.  Is breast cancer more important than another cancer, no all cancer sucks, all lives are precious.  

When are we as a country going to get it.  We have to push for change.  Change in Government, change in laws, change in priorities, changes in standards.  I get freaked out more and more all the time to think about what we will become as a country.  It’s not about stricter gun laws, and who can get guns.  Violence is going to happen when people don’t give a ______.  It could be a rock, a gun, a knife, a fist, it doesn’t matter.  As long as there are people who care, there is hope for this world.