This is America

Image taken from Star Tribune

I have not written much in a few days; truth be told, it is hard to know where to focus. There is much to say, not enough time to write.

Should we talk about the latest phenomena which is actually just a return of antiquated pastime? People of color being strung up in trees, left to die, and oddly no one knows how it happened… Good job America, on our way to becoming Great Again for sure.

Or if my readers are not that interested in hearing about the plights of our brothers and sisters possessing more melanin, then we can talk about all the white people dying in Florida because there are not enough ICU beds.  Yes, the crazy leftists knew this was going to happen a few months ago, when it was happening to us here in NY, and governors below the Mason-Dixon and our lauded president wanted to pretend we were over-dramatic or lying about how many ventilators we’d need. Remember that? When Mr. Kemp learned that the virus could be spread by asymptomatic carriers WEEKS after the rest of the free world?

(I grow timid while waxing sarcastic and imagine my sister to stop reading about now. Confessions of a little sister: I try to gauge whether I’m being too thumb-in-cheek by how likely I feel my big sis is to become annoyed by the use of this attitude and respond with an article that preaches the converse of something I’ve just sought to prove. There you go world. Truth be told. I am really not all that brave after all… just a little sister always wanting to impress her heroine and afraid of disappointing).

While we’re on the topic though, of our great dictator-in-Chief, I would be amiss not to mention one of his stunts from last week, where he utilized a manipulated and spliced video of two toddlers to make his tweet, and then laughed about it, saying the rest of us were too sensitive. So true. He is right, and I should not mind if he were to borrow a photo of Eden and Micah to proclaim that racism does not exist… or a video of Eli chasing Micah to say that black babies are afraid of Chinese kids with Kung Flu. None of these things would be wrong for the president of our ‘’free world’’ to do. It is a free world, and he’s making a joke. I am too sensitive, you see.

Or let’s go for broke, and bring up how The Gospel Coalition published an article encouraging us to mourn over the supreme court decision to protect the rights and safety from discrimination those whose sexual identities are not as clear cut as mine or my husbands, and suggested the answer to our problems resides in having as many children as possible and “discipling them like crazy” because, of course, we can completely control our children and what they become. We can completely control, even, the will of God and things we do not understand. Perhaps, my dear brother, the author, has not suffered enough loss of control in his own life and thus can spout this as principle to be followed. I spit it out. I spit it out of my mouth, however. This cannot be how Jesus would respond to the transgender. This cannot be…

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m imagining a world where people are pious and don’t revert to coughing on babies to deal with their discomfort and agitation. Yes, this has become a thing too. Allow me to google search for you. “Woman No Masks Coughs.” Read at your own risk, to lose all hope in the maturity of humanity.

Or how the mother of my childhood best friend was scammed just this past week, out of $20k, and how the police say there is nothing they can do, and the attorney’s office through which the breach occurred and with which she was working to buy a home, is not responsible because they were never in possession of her money. So she’s out, my friends, out of her savings…. In a second. She worked in real estate for over thirty years, and one small moment has now crushed her. In the midst of the new normal of Covid, and realtors being kept from going to in-person-closings for months, she wired money. It does not matter that the credentials were seemingly all in place. Scam artists are just that, artists, wise in deception, and now she is left with everyone saying there is nothing they can do. So what does she do? This is America. And it is devastating.

Tensions are high. This is our NEW civil war, people locked inside burnt buildings with rifles and long guns, no doubt other weapons they should not be allowed to carry, but this is America. Do not take away our guns. And do not censor our police, take their pensions, or hold them to -gasp- HIGHER standards than the average citizen is held. They are our police! They can do what they like and should not be held accountable, as they are not….you see… with new charges being filed in Minnesota against the PD, …but what will ACTUALLY come of these charges? That is to be determined. Partiality was shown to Derek Chavin? Are you surprised? I am not. I grew up in Georgia. Police are obviously shown partiality; actually, I thought THAT WAS the law. Oh, it is not? Cops are supposed to be treated equally? Wait, equally compared to whom? To the black men they murder? With their knees on their necks or multiple gunshots in their backs? I am confused. Help me understand… like my high school friend offered to help me understand yesterday, but then produced no materials, while she claimed Mr. Floyd’s life did not matter because he’d apparently held a pregnant woman at gunpoint while another woman was raped. I was ignorant, and part of the problem, because I could produce police reports of Floyd’s charges and crimes, none of which included the aforementioned, but she was too busy because she had a job, yet had certainly done her research; she would not listen to my bias media. She knew Floyd had done these things; thus his life didn’t matter.  I should move on. There was no room to discuss anything like two civilized adults.

I will move on, but I won’t NOT grieve the state of humanity…I will grieve it. I will grieve her and for her.

“The complaint also alleges Chauvin was given special treatment in his brief stay in the jail before being transferred to a state prison.

One of the guards in the case said he was shocked that afternoon to find himself and other employees of color assigned to the third floor, rather than dispersed throughout the building as usual.

A sergeant said in the complaint that he was told that "minorities who were on the fifth floor were no longer permitted to have any contact" with Chauvin. He said that he confirmed with a lieutenant that there had been a policy change, and then attempted to console other employees of color, who felt the decision discredited their professionalism.

The complaint also includes an allegation that a white lieutenant at the jail was granted "special access" to Chauvin's cell, and that a guard saw the lieutenant sit on Chauvin's bed and let him use her cellphone.

It says that correctional officers met with jail superintendent Steve Lydon, who officers said admitted to giving the order. Smith said the guards said Lydon told them they were a "liability" because they could potentially trigger a lawsuit against the sheriff's office.” -NPR.org

SO yes, my friends, I am not sure where to focus… for what to fight; there is too much. And time, it seems, is that of which there is not enough. And my sister, I am sure, is growing impatient with me for not getting the point…

So what’s my point. Is there a point? Or do I type merely to feel self-righteous. Some would argue. The truth is, I am not self-righteous. I am just as sick as everyone to whom I have alluded. My sickness just looks different. My sickness is my impatience, with my family, my arrogance with those I lead, and my selfishness when it comes to my husband and my children. My pride that masks itself in poor self-esteem- my slothfulness that wants just to eat pizza, drink diet coke, and be left alone, that is my filth. My tendency to self-isolate rather than engage and converse and find my worth in the faith I confess and not in what other people may or may not think about me, that is my downfall. In my lust for materialism that maxes out our monthly budget, in my frustration when those I love struggle in sin and do not make the choices I think they should, there my sickness lies. There it festers and boils. There it is wretched like the yellow-haired crazy man who is supposedly leading our country. I am not better my friends. I’m just different. We are all broken. We are all running this world into the ground…

but for Jesus… BUT FOR CHRIST… we are lost…Lest He comes to help, to do that which we cannot… to give light to our souls and wisdom, the shed light in the dark and on the murky… to bring about justice where we cannot figure out what justice is… because I never even made it to the Autonomous zone, to where people are now dying and being shot… and we do not know who the culprits are! Are they men and women fighting for black lives and other just causes? Or are they men and woman seeking to silence those who are protesting? And the cops cannot make their way in to investigate because no one trusts them, and rightly so… so what do we do? One thing we know… hate, hate is the enemy. Satan is the curse. Whether he’s disguised in a Maga hat or a BLM shirt, the enemy is clearly the anti-Christ…

But take heart, be implored, as ambassadors of Christ, because ²¹ For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (1Cor 5:21), So be encouraged despite the sarcasm; be not discouraged and dismayed! Carry on, if you can, another day, another moment, this side of the New Heavens and New Earth, this side of the totality of redemption, when all tears will be washed away… carry on, if you can, with me.