In my life, I have witnessed some horrifying and some inspiring things. You tamp down the horrifying and lock it away, and you attempt to hold onto the inspiring and apply it to your life. I know good and bad, and I have no illusions about the kind of world this is.
So, I listen to and respond to the news with a very informed view of the polar opposites that exist in this world. And, I try to remember the help that all of us need, and the ultimate source of that help.
I will share this story that got me thinking about this on a very bright and beautiful morning at the beach. A news story I stumbled upon, in the kind of aimless clicking that happens when you are the only one awake, and there is nothing new on TV. It is horrible and tragic, and a fine illustration of why we all need help.
In Pinellas County Florida, the story describes 3 teenage girls crashing a stolen car into a pond and drowning. That is tragic enough, in and of itself. Yet, the reason I found the story is that the police are accused of not attempting to save those three teenage girls, and sitting on the bank watching them die.
Of course, it is not so unusual that teenagers steal a car. Being 16 and with little experience behind the wheel, that they wrecked running from the police is not that unbelievable. Drowning in your stolen vehicle is a terrible way to go. There is nothing about this story that makes anyone feel better.
But, if you read the comments and garbage, it makes you even more disturbed. No, 16 year olds did not deserve to die, regardless of how many cars they had previously stolen. No, because their parents are the definition of bad, they did not deserve to die. No, it did not matter what color their skin was,they still did not deserve to die. No, their life was not already wasted. No, they were not already a lost cause.
No child of God is a lost cause. I pray that there could be reconciliation to society for those this young already down a long road of criminality. There has to be a way into their lives to turn it around. There is value to these lives. There is value to these souls. These are troubled people, not lost causes. They are 16, and not Manson family members. They are criminals, and deserve to be punished for their crimes, but that does not mean they are a waste of life.
The cops are not evil because the girls died. Because the dash cam video does not show any cops in the water does not mean that cops were not in the water. Cops are not required to dive into murky Florida water, amongst gators and moccasins to save those that crashed in commission of a felony. Cops are not the answer, regardless of the question. Cops should not be laughing at that situation.
I think it is kind of ironic, that the people most distrustful and hateful for the police, have the highest expectations for the police. I don't think cops are required to jump into cold, dark water to try to save someone from a sinking car. If it is me, I hope that they do, but it is not a realistic expectation. It does no one any good to have dead suspects and dead cops. They are taught not to expose themselves in that way. Many do so, even though it is contrary to training and protocol. Because so many go above and beyond, it is now an expectation.
Worse, there is an assumption of prejudice and racism associated with this story. The implication is that if the car had been full of white girls, all the cops would have dived in. I think that is incredibly self serving. It is also hypocritical. My bet would be none of those complaining would have jumped into that weed clogged pond in gator territory, at night. Most would not jump in a swimming pool in the daylight to try to drag someone out of a sinking car. They are the ones filming it on their cell phone, so they can blog dissent later.
I don't know how to impact this, with the people involved. The families that lost children should be saddened and heart broken. The police are traumatized. The commenters are agitated. I am saddened.
God alone knows why children are given to so many that are so incapable of raising them. Regardless of the color of the skin of these teenagers, to be in this much trouble by the age of 16, the parenting is atrocious. The court system failed them entirely. How can someone be 16 with seven arrests for felony theft, and still on the streets to commit more crimes? How can the parents fail like this?
Perhaps those are poor questions. Maybe the parents were good, decent folks, that just had children that failed to listen or learn. It happens. Perhaps the parents had many other children and worked many hours to put food on the table, and could not closely supervise them like the wished. Perhaps the parents were in jail, and not responsible for the children at all.
Why do we assume that the police let them die? Or that there was something to be done, that was not done. No available video shows an angle with the car in the water. Because we cannot see it, we assume none of the cops got in the water to attempt a rescue, even though the sheriff says they did. We have created a climate where the selfless are considered corrupt, and good are condemned along with the bad.
The problem is neither side of the argument see that. The Black Lives Matter movements and supporters do not consider themselves bigoted, though they assume the worst of all law enforcement and believe nothing that is not video proof. It is a sad, and in some ways, self destructive life.
The Blue Lives Matter movement and supporters do not consider themselves bigoted, though they view all suspects and perpetrators with the same prism. And, they are predisposed to believe the worst of anyone of color, or in the projects and ghettos. And, they refuse to accept the truth, even with video proof. It is a sad, and in some ways, self destructive life.
If we mourned the loss of three young lives, who started dying the first time they stole a car, just like someone with cancer starts dying the minute the diagnosis is made, we might find the resolve to do something about the broken system that failed them. We might start to see the court system as more, as a system of both punishment and recovery. We might make it so that repeat offenders, even though juvenile, are removed from the situation that is producing that behavior and placed in a system that requires them to be educated, to work, to learn about a life outside of the narcissistic and self-absorbed world they live in. We might decide that it is time to accept our shared responsibility to make everyone's children successful, to give them all an opportunity to grow and develop, to ensure they have access to a future of meaning and purpose. We might decide that now is the time to break the cycle that we have been observing for 50 years in our communities of poverty, and tap into the incredible resource that they are.
If we accepted that the police, everywhere, are just like us, it could change the environment. They have faults, some of them are bad, but it is the very small minority. That the career is increasingly difficult to navigate. That it is our neighbors, relatives, sons and daughters, that are creating the uber violent times that have led to the militarization of the police. It is a myth that started with 9/11. 9/11 accelerated it, but it started with a bank robbery in Southern California, where the police were outgunned and overmatched by a pair of robbers with military style weapons, body armor and military style tactics. It is impossible to be Barney Fife and Andy Taylor today, just like it was impossible to be Barney Fife and Andy Taylor when that show as on air. We want it to be true, so we think that it must be. It is not.
We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, once ordained and established a Constitution. It is a beautiful document that was heavily flawed. Over time, because it worked to our better graces, we changed it and amended it. We eliminated the strictures that prohibited full participation to minorities and women. We eliminated strictures that condoned a gentry class and confirmed them power. We added strictures that protected rights to groups never considered by the Founders. We came together and were the people, in We, the people. Over and over we have done that. We defeated the greatest empire on Earth, twice in our first 50 years. We defeated the greatest military machine and menace the world has ever seen three times in the last 100 years.
There is nothing beyond us, as a people, if we just decide to take an issue on. Nothing is more than we are as a whole. We have just let division and divisive tactics drive our landscape since 1964. For 52 years, we have counted things for and against, and divvied up shares in reparations for it. We ignored our true values and settled on racial quotas, sexual quotas, numbers versus justice. Before that, things were definitely worse. Many good things came out of this period.
But, the cancer that is killing us slowly also was born in that movement. We established a consensus in America that an individual could be owed something more than a fair shot. They could be owed money, education, preference, assistance, shelter. We taught our children that these things were deserved for reasons other than hard work and dedication. And because of that, we unwittingly devalued hard work and dedication. We tacitly agreed to ourselves that past sins meant those born now are owed something they did not earn. Therefor, they do not need to work hard, do not need to overcome the obstacles of life that everyone meets. They could continue to survive, without input to the system in a positive and fulfilling way.
Unfortunately, being human, we do not accept just surviving. We have taught generations that they are owed something, which means that it is a simple step to taking what you want. Because the system is rigged, because the man is out to get us, because we don't get all that we want, it is a short leap to just taking what you desire. Not everyone makes it, but, many more do now, and because life is more complex, interrelated, transparent and forensically detailed, they are paying a high price before they are adults.
The generation after the Depression grew up without consideration of the hard times of the world. The US has been such an engine of progress and growth, that we have now had multiple generations that believe better is owed us, not something we have to go earn together. It explains Congress, who want the pork and the reelection, more than they want a more secure and viable country. It explains the failure of churches, and the growth of Joel Oelsteen's heresy. God can't expect us to work at being better and loving others. That is hard. It is better to believe God wants to give us all kinds of stuff, regardless of what reality is. Even in the mega churches and denominations, we are reinforcing the cancerous decay that will leave us wretched and destroyed.
This is a hard, hard world. It does not respect wants, should have beens, dreams, desires, wishes. It only bends itself to hard work, determination and dedicated effort. When we stop trying to explain that away, and begin equipping our children with tools to go do the hard work, we will experience another great period. If we do not, we will not survive. That is the lesson I took from three young girls drowning in a pond in Florida.
It all comes back to raising, and self awareness. If you are not aware that you are worth hard work and effort, you won't put it in. If someone promises you money for nothing and chicks for free, why should you work? If the only successful economic engine you have witnessed is theft and dope dealing, why would you consider some other avenue? If you have never seen real parenting responsibility, where will it come from within you? If you have no script, you cannot get the lines right.
We, the people, in order to save our union, reestablish justice, get some domestic tranquility, provide common sense, promote self welfare, and show some blessings from our liberty for ourselves, and especially our posterity, we should ordain and establish our collective constitution, and make our nation once again the United States of America.
GLYASDI
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