[QUOTE=gimmethesimplelife;335158]Tradd, OUCH! I didn't go quite that far. Smartphone video every day all around America had proven many cops can't be trusted.....I'm afraid there's no logical way to dispute that fact at this late date. I am not willing to take the risk of interacting with law enforcement - life is short and basic Human Rights matter. Are cops damaged goods? Good question.
I actually believe some are not when they first enter the profession but that internal cop culture and internal pressures lead to the "them vs. us" mentality that indeed does lead to damaged goods status. Rob
Tradd, OUCH! I didn't go quite that far. Smartphone video every day all around America had proven many cops can't be trusted.....I'm afraid there's no logical way to dispute that fact at this late date. I am not willing to take the risk of interacting with law enforcement - life is short and basic Human Rights matter. Are cops damaged goods? Good question.
I actually believe some are not when they first enter the profession but that internal cop culture and internal pressures lead to the "them vs. us" mentality that indeed does lead to damaged goods status. Rob
20 years ago I lived in a condo where most of the residents were elderly. I knew many of the people. I got a phone call from a guy’s family that lived above me that they hadn’t heard from him in a week. So I went to the parking lot and his car was there. I pounded on his door and he didn’t answer. I called the police and he had been dead for a week.
History is what it is, and doesn’t ask to be forgiven. Carrying a burden of bitterness for the sins of centuries past is pointless.
Speaking of forgiveness, I don’t see how anyone could fail to be uplifted by the level of grace the victim’s brother demonstrated. I know I couldn’t in that situation.
Rob have you ever been to the lynching museum in Alabama? I think it would interest you.
speaking of forgiveness, there was mention in this thread of an Alabama case where a black man was given life at age 22 for stealing $50 in a bakery 36 years ago. He robbed it and had a pocket knife which he did not use. He had previous crimes, but none were violent and a life sentence was handed down. I read as much as I could find and it seems there are several hundreds of prisoners in the Alabama prison system under similar situations. They lack attorneys who are willing to do the work to get them out as this man did.
He was trying to figure out who to give his possessions to as he left (including his thermal underwear it is so cold in the winter) there is so much deprivation there.
perhaps instead of carrying a burden of bitterness for past sins we should look further for opportunities for forgiveness.
The victims brother freed himself in this case and attained a higher level of personality spirituality than most of us can hope to achieve.
I have been there and lived in rural Tennessee for a while on a temporary job assignment. There are still many places today in the south where they might as well put a fence between the two sides of town. One side with bars on the windows, pristine lawns and not a soul in sight. The other side with people outside visiting, kids playing, barbecues going and people walking to stores etc. Guess which is the predominant color on each side?
Of course, knowing nothing about the history of the town it would be a fascinating thing to study.
even today, it is not unusual to go by a schoolyard of kids playing on recess and see an almost segregated schoolyard. Sometimes in elementary schools a few miles apart. Not just in the south
I hadn't seen that but just watched it. Very uplifting. Forgiveness is so difficult, and I can imagine almost impossible in this situation.
Yet, in the comments on the YouTube clip that I watched were nothing but cynical: "He did it to make white people happy," "he did it because he was on television." "Oh, it's fake forgiveness because it's too soon." "This is why America is going down-because we're a bunch of wimps who don't stand up for ourselves." I prefer to believe there are saints among us, and he is one of them.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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