The Truth Of The Matter Is

When will the talk about the removal of confederate statues going to stop? It just keeps going on and on. That is old news. Confederate statues or flags, are not the cause of society’s ills in this country. Most of the statues have been around for at least a hundred years and the flag for just as long.  Stop and think. Confederate statues did not shoot 16 people in Baltimore between a Monday morning and Wednesday about a month ago. The Confederate flag did not rape, beat, and murder nobody. There are more killings, in this country over gang symbols, colors, and territory than over racism. When is that going to be protested? When are these things going to be removed our society?  Years ago when the word colored people became offensive, it was changed to Negroes, then that became offensive, so it became blacks, then offense to that was taken. It was then changed to people of color, and then changed to African Americans. We can’t tear down everything every time a new opinion comes along. We, as Americans, need to build up and not tear down.

 In 2003, several councils, in England banned hot cross buns out of fear of offending non-Christians. Who gets to pass judgment tomorrow? What will offend tomorrow and who will it offend? How much longer will this go on?  ISIS has destroyed ancient statues because they think anything not in keeping with their beliefs is offensive. Hitler destroyed art, books, music and anything he considered offensive. When will it stop and who will pass judgment tomorrow? What generation or race has the right to say another culture’s work is wrong? Christians were offended when Jesus and the Virgin Mary were depicted with urine and feces but the museum was not forced to remove the items. Why was that? It’s time to focus what is happening now  and stop blaming what happen 150 years ago for all of the problems of today in this country.

 If we remove all the Confederate statues, what will some people blame for failure next? A famous black ballplayer spoke to kids during the Baltimore riots in May and told them that his childhood was just as poor and hopeless as their lives but his choice was to rise above it. I was poor when I was growing up, but I did not blame everything and everybody. I was bullied by every white boy in the neighborhood because of being poor. I had nothing and they had everything. They hated me. I could not walk down the street or go to the store without being bullied. To then I was a “NO BODY “and school was the same way. I knew that I was in for it just about every day.  But I did not let that stop me from doing what I wanted to in my life.

I had parents that raised me right and taught me values that have lasted me a life time.  Those same values have been passed on to my three sons.  We all need to choose to rise above blame and build a culture of hope and responsibility, by doing everything in our power to be successful instead of living in a  society of “you’ll never amount to anything” because of a statue or a flag that has been there for a long time. That does not even make sense. Stop and think on which has more effect on families and the communities in which you live; an old granite statue of something that is a part of history and in our past that no one ever notices or a new granite tombstone for an innocent child killed by criminals?

All things are possible through Christ if we put Him in the equation.  The trouble is most people; white and black do not want to hear that. Some even use Him and the Christian Faith as their escape goat for all the wrong in this country, when in fact if we followed His teachings none of this and a lot of other things would not be happening in this country.