A group of people, calling themselves "Black Lives Matter" recently marched in Minnesota in support of that proposition. So how do truly
concerned people, carrying signs in support of that proposition also
chant, "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon"?
Do black lives really matter to people who call
for cops -- white or black - to be killed and put in body bags? Would
life be better in the black community -- or any community -- if there
were no cops? No white cops? No black cops?
After watching the "Black Lives Matter" in Minnesota, a friend of mine said, "If Black Lives Matter, they should matter always, every day, and not just when they are lost at the hands of police." I wholly agree with that, but would go further. I believe all lives matter always.
One-hundred-fifty years ago, Abe Lincoln repeatedly said something that many Americans judged to be politically incorrect. But he may have said it best in his debate at Galesburg with Stephen A. Douglas:
"Now, I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil ... [and] desire a policy that looks to the prevention of it as a wrong -- that it may come to an end."
That belief was shared by roughly 500,000 northern men who gave their lives during our Civil War.
Sadly, 150 years after Abe Lincoln and the Civil War, there still appear to be a significant number of people to whom lives -- black, white or fetal -- don't matter.
If you think that I am wrong, ask yourself these questions, and ask yourself if the Black Lives Matter movement even addresses these issues?
Do black lives really matter to the heroin dealer -- black or white -- who sells the drug in the black community?
Do they matter to the cocaine and "crack" dealers -- black or white -- who sell in the black community?
Do black lives matter to the black or white gang member who fires a pistol at a black member of a rival gang?
Who fires down a city street where black children are playing, or sitting on their porches with their mothers or grandmothers?
Do black lives of children matter to the black or white father who impregnates a black teenage girl and them immediately moves on? Who never sees or supports his child? Who never acts as father to his child?
Do black lives matter to the young black woman who aborts her fetus? Is the black fetus a life?
Do black lives matter to the black or white gunman who holds up and shoots the black owner of the neighborhood grocery store or gas station?
Do black lives matter to black or white rioters who burn down black neighborhoods?
Do black lives matter to young black men who drop out of school, and waste a chance to be educated, the same chance afforded young white men in the same school?
Do black lives matter when black and white people march and chant, "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon.”
My bottom line is this: ALL lives matter. For me, "all" includes fetal life, the disabled and the elderly, and regardless of whether those lives are black, white, or any other race or color.
I understand the idea of saying things and doing things to call attention to your movement. But I think it is impossible to have a just society based on hatred and evil. Saul Alinsky rule of "means and ends" is this: "The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; ... He asks of ends only whether the ends are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work."
But if pragmatism is the only test of "means," how would killing all the cops make life in the black community an iota better? How would it stop the drug dealing? Gang shootings? The murder of infants on their front porches? Does anybody seriously believe that all black deaths are caused by police shootings?
In recent days, we have seen a spate of ambushes of police officers doing nothing more that sitting in or driving squad cars. Do this really help the black community? The white community? Anybody?
If we are all created in the image and likeness of God, then how can any man of good will kill his neighbor -- or even call for the death of his neighbor -- who is doing him no wrong?
And ask your self if the Black Lives Matter movement even addresses these issues.
After watching the "Black Lives Matter" in Minnesota, a friend of mine said, "If Black Lives Matter, they should matter always, every day, and not just when they are lost at the hands of police." I wholly agree with that, but would go further. I believe all lives matter always.
One-hundred-fifty years ago, Abe Lincoln repeatedly said something that many Americans judged to be politically incorrect. But he may have said it best in his debate at Galesburg with Stephen A. Douglas:
"Now, I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil ... [and] desire a policy that looks to the prevention of it as a wrong -- that it may come to an end."
That belief was shared by roughly 500,000 northern men who gave their lives during our Civil War.
Sadly, 150 years after Abe Lincoln and the Civil War, there still appear to be a significant number of people to whom lives -- black, white or fetal -- don't matter.
If you think that I am wrong, ask yourself these questions, and ask yourself if the Black Lives Matter movement even addresses these issues?
Do black lives really matter to the heroin dealer -- black or white -- who sells the drug in the black community?
Do they matter to the cocaine and "crack" dealers -- black or white -- who sell in the black community?
Do black lives matter to the black or white gang member who fires a pistol at a black member of a rival gang?
Who fires down a city street where black children are playing, or sitting on their porches with their mothers or grandmothers?
Do black lives of children matter to the black or white father who impregnates a black teenage girl and them immediately moves on? Who never sees or supports his child? Who never acts as father to his child?
Do black lives matter to the young black woman who aborts her fetus? Is the black fetus a life?
Do black lives matter to the black or white gunman who holds up and shoots the black owner of the neighborhood grocery store or gas station?
Do black lives matter to black or white rioters who burn down black neighborhoods?
Do black lives matter to young black men who drop out of school, and waste a chance to be educated, the same chance afforded young white men in the same school?
Do black lives matter when black and white people march and chant, "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon.”
My bottom line is this: ALL lives matter. For me, "all" includes fetal life, the disabled and the elderly, and regardless of whether those lives are black, white, or any other race or color.
I understand the idea of saying things and doing things to call attention to your movement. But I think it is impossible to have a just society based on hatred and evil. Saul Alinsky rule of "means and ends" is this: "The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; ... He asks of ends only whether the ends are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work."
But if pragmatism is the only test of "means," how would killing all the cops make life in the black community an iota better? How would it stop the drug dealing? Gang shootings? The murder of infants on their front porches? Does anybody seriously believe that all black deaths are caused by police shootings?
In recent days, we have seen a spate of ambushes of police officers doing nothing more that sitting in or driving squad cars. Do this really help the black community? The white community? Anybody?
If we are all created in the image and likeness of God, then how can any man of good will kill his neighbor -- or even call for the death of his neighbor -- who is doing him no wrong?
And ask your self if the Black Lives Matter movement even addresses these issues.
Posted: Friday, September 18, 2015 11:00 pm, QCOnline.com
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