Who truly feels like we are living in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Anyone? Because certainly I` have not felt that these past few weeks.
I am sure most of you have heard of the horrific Philando Castile and Alton Sterling shootings. Understandably, the whole world is in quite an uproar about it. And the shootings in Dallas of 14 people, 12 of them police officers, which left four officers of the Dallas city police and one from Dallas Area Rapid Transit without their lives as reported in the New York Timesall of these deaths were absolutely tragic. What is it like for a sophomore in college to witness these things? How does it make me feel?
First, I viewed videos of the shooting of Alton Sterling. Everything seemed to happen so very quickly. I am honestly not sure what I saw and I will never know what really happened because I was not there. But it doesn't matter what I observed. What does matter is that Mr. Sterling was shot and killed and that is profoundly terrible. I understand that the police may somehow have felt like they were doing what needed to be done but I do not agree with extinguishing this man's life. That goes for all of the others who were also killed. I believe in the police and I trust them to do their job but murder is murder and it really is upsetting that there may have been a different way to deal with this situation.
Secondly, these events make me angry. It makes me angry that people were killed. It makes me angry that someone can think that by killing police in Dallas, who had absolutely nothing to do with the prior shootings, that it will somehow improve the situation. Even Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." How true are his words even to this day. These police who were killed have families and people they love and people who love them. It is heartbreaking that a person would so selfishly take another's life away from them.
Mr. Sterling and Mr. Castile surely had loved ones also and it is just as heart-wrenching that their lives were so quickly taken away from them. I know police brutality exists. Unfortunately, violence has taken up residence everywhere. I am not so naive as to trust absolutely everyone who is in authority over me. But God commands us to obey those in authority over us and since God has allowed and commanded these men and women to secure our communities we should trust them to do so all the while standing against unwarranted violence committed by anyone. Everyone messes things up, everyone makes mistakes, everyone acts irrationally sometimes. We cannot turn around and do just the same things that have hurt us and believe we are any better of a person. Our anger must not prompt responses which repeat the wrong that has been done to us.
Finally these events absolutely scare me. We are supposed to be free and brave in America. I attend college in Jackson, Mississippi, a location with a rather high rate of crime. I fly there and go through airport security. I shouldn't have to constantly wonder if someone is going to take out a gun and start slaying people as I walk through airports. I shouldn't have to feel like I can't leave my college dorm room because there may be a shooter on campus. I shouldn't have to wonder if I can trust the people in my city to allow the police to do their jobs, even if it may not seem like it is the right way. I shouldn't be afraid that someone may consider my life worthless.
At the end of our lives we will all appear before the God who allows us to keep breathing every second of every day. We should be loving one another just as He commands us to do. Matthew 5:44 tells us, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Our country needs prayer that we may be able to love one another and have the bravery to do the right things. Killing will not stop people from killing. In the end, only love can do that.
