Sunday Thought - November 30, 2014: Ferguson, MO - Boots on the Ground, or Let It Burn?

From the picture above I think we can conclude that these folks at least know what they are.  They can continue to be what they are if the can learn what the word STOP means when a police officer says it.  They can pad the bets on living if they don't steal, grab for an officer's gun and push around those smaller than they are, or act like a sociopath. 

The following article came across my Facebook page the other day and, as much as we are all tired of hearing about the criminals acting out in Ferguson, I thought I'd share it:

http://viral.buzz/kkk-resurgence-in-ferguson-and-you-thought-things-couldnt-get-worse/

My comment to the article was the following:

Okay, so we have the police trying to control the terrorists, the terrorists being threatened by the KKK, another group of terrorists terrorizing the police and the KKK in order to protect the original terrorists, homegrown Islamic terrorists threatening to hit unknown targets, and ISIS terrorists promising to plant their flag on the Capitol. Here's just a thought. Let Ferguson play out and "burn baby burn." Let the KKK and these terrorists have at each other and we'll deal with the winner down the road. This will cut the legs out from under Anonymous. It also leaves the rest of us free to handle the real threat of ISIS and the homegrown murdering heretics. Just a thought.

I know I left out the Black Panthers, but really, without the left calling the shots for them, they are fairly impotent. They have been relegated to enforcement thugs, evidenced by their threatening people at polling places and the AG turning a blind eye to it. The left has it's hands full putting out all the fires they've started in Washington right now to really care about feeding their dogs new assignments, but if they'd like to join the fray I'm sure the KKK and the Ferguson terrorists won't mind a bit.

And, yes, I was being flippant.  This whole situation is ridiculous.  When a student from UCLA lectures an older, black, police officer on what racism means, the educational system in this country needs to take a hard look at their curriculum.  But, this lack of quality education has just added to a situation already spinning out of control.  Authorities should declare martial law and put an end to it.  Civil rights for these criminals should be curtailed and the law abiding population should be protected.  The situation here went south the minute after the stepfather yelled to burn the bitch down.  He should be immediately taken into custody, tried, and convicted of crimes too numerous to list.  To make this situation even worse, I heard on the news this morning that the communist party from New York is now onsite.  Oh, joy... more socialists.

The problem here isn't that a police officer shot a black man in the commission of a crime, attacking said police officer but, rather, the anarchist attitudes and decay of the family unit that permeates our society as a whole.  Ferguson is not a lesson on black crime in poor neighborhoods.  The protesters and criminals that have come out of the woodwork in response to the killing of this young criminal, white, black, Hispanic, communist, KKK, Black Panthers, Anonymous, and all the others not from Ferguson, are evidence of the much larger problem.  This is not free speech.  This is anarchy.  This is burning property and hurting innocent people when all the evidence, the facts, shows Mike Brown to be a thug, and a criminal.  This is a lack of respect for the rule of law and the perpetrators should be dealt with harshly.   

What has happened in Ferguson is a reflection of the deterioration of American values, family values, religious values, and the laws of our society.  For too long we have bowed to the minority in this country that find fault at every turn.  Like putting too much water in lemonade, the flavor has dissipated.  We have thinned our laws to the point of non-existence; to the point where, for many, they are meaningless and become more like guidelines than something of substance.  For the law abiding, we hope an officer shows up when we call for help, but deep inside we know if they do it will oft times be too late.

If the grand jury had been comprised of equal parts black and white, would it have made a difference?  Probably not.  This crowd was an unstable explosive waiting for a match which came in the form of the step-fathers exclamation to burn it all down.  This was blatant disrespect for the laws of our country that began with Mike Brown and his family of "upstanding" role models.  This continues to be a disregard for the truth behind the evidence and testimony that shows what really went down during the incident, and the lies that were revealed when witnesses began  changing the stories and coming forward with the truth that many didn't even witness anything.  What the black community in Ferguson needs to address has more to do with truth than with justice, because the truth will set you free.  I hate to be cold, but Mike Brown's real father seems to be the only voice of reason in this insanity, and I find the difference in attitudes between him and the stepfather interesting.  Perhaps evidence of why the marriage failed; why this family unit collapsed?  

We, all of us, need to work on family values.  We need to work on keeping families together and not making divorce or abandonment a matter of fact.  We need to sit down with family for our meals and discuss the day's activities and news.  We need to have meaningful discussion and debate over things that happen in our country.  We need to ensure our young people are brought up to think for themselves and not believe the hype.  We need to show them there is a process for grievances that is peaceful so the protest is not worse than the crime it stands for, and so innocence doesn't suffer the effects of intentional, or unintentional, criminal stupidity.

My own marriage collapsed in on itself, but only after I spent fifteen years trying to hold it together.  It was long enough to ensure the kids could make their own sound and moral judgments.  Sometimes things just don't work out, but that does not excuse you from your responsibilities to your family or to society.

Do we need more boots on the ground in Ferguson, or should we just let the "bitch" burn?  I don't know.  As an interfaith minister I can only judge the inaction of the community as a whole to prevent their community, their neighbors, from being torched.  I can only judge the obvious lack of Christian, and other religious and societal values evidenced by the protesters.

Will we learn from Ferguson?  Probably not, when you consider that we, as a society, are also beginning to spin out of control.  History will continue to repeat until mankind learns from it.  Are we not traveling down the same path as Rome?  

We already seem to be burning.

Note from Pastor Tony, the founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance, as well as the author and editor of "The Path," the Congregation's official blogsite:  

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion.  It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other.  An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth.  After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human.  God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.
  

Frank Anthony Villari, Pastor