Guns and Tears

What occurs to me is that in August 1955, a young black kid went to visit relatives.  He went missing.  When he was found, he had a bullet hole behind his right ear, was missing an eye, had evidence of having been beaten.  He was found with a 70 pound weight, a cotton gin, attached around his neck with barbed wire, dumped in a river.  His name was Emmett Till.  He was 14 years old.

In the late evening, in June of 1963, arriving home after a day of meetings, a young black man was shot in the back from the shadows across the road.  He died instantly as his wife and children looked on.  His name was Medgar Evers.

In the summer of 1964, three young men, who were working to help register voters during the Freedom Summer, disappeared.  Their bodies were found two months later, in an earthen dam, in a Mississippi swamp.  They had been shot.  Their names were Andrew Goodman, James Cheney, and Michael Schwerner.

In February 2012, a young African American boy was returning home, after having walked to a store to buy a snack of iced tea and Skittles.  While walking, he was talking on his cell phone to his girl friend.  He was accosted by a man, who shot him, dead.  His name was Trayvon Martin.

In the first three cases, the killers were acquitted.  Only when years passed were the cases reopened, and some convictions were actually obtained.

In the case of Trayvon Martin, his killer was released at the scene, of the murder he had committed, by the police.  After nation-wide outrage, the US Department of Justice has stepped in, as has the Florida Attorney General's office.  After 3 weeks of doing nothing.

There have been throughout our history crimes committed because of hate, many of which have gone untried, un-convicted, un-arrested, unresolved.  With each case, and with each crime, come the tears of the loved ones who never had the chance to say good-bye.  And each time, when good people fail to raise a voice in protest, this country takes another step away from God.

To each of these, and to Trayvon's family especially, today, we shed a tear for you, for your son, and for ourselves as a nation.  To those who can accept what has happened without that tear, you are as much a demon as the trigger puller.

And why do we have to have this conversation about guns once again, with no resolution?  This is a conversation for another time.  Tonight should be a time of reflection and prayer.

Thanks for stopping by.