What Will It Take?

Today is the first Wednesday of September and time for a post for the Insecure Writer’sSupport Group.

I have struggled for the past several days as to what to write. I’m moved to tears this morning by the violence and hate in our country at the moment. And I say this without having turned on a television to witness the latest unsettling news of the day.

 

The horrendous killing of that Harris County Deputy last Friday evening happened in Houston. I live in Houston. The man charged with this senseless crime lived in a subdivision called Copperfield. I lived in Copperfield in the 80’ & 90’s. He graduated from a Cy-Fair high school 12 years ago…the same school my daughter graduated from 20 years ago.

During his football career he was scouted by several colleges. He was a team player. There was no black/white hatred on that team. They played as a TEAM. But that was another time…

What happened over these last 12 years? It had to have been something monstrous. And now, a well-respected man is taken from this world, leaving a wife and two small children to piece together the rest of their lives.

The bright spot in all of this for me has been the peace rally that took place this past weekend. Hundreds and hundreds of people of all color walked together for the violence to stop. 

Yet yesterday on the news I saw graffiti had popped up several places here in Houston of a policeman with a gun pointed to his head. The news bulletin read “Anti-law-enforcement graffiti in the Houston area.”

Where will it end? What will it take? My heart is heavy this morning. To combat violence and hate with violence and hate isn’t the answer. Not the way I believe.

I lived through the assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963. I was 11 and felt a sense of shame something so horrible could happen in my state. Now, the feeling is much stronger. Yes, because the shooting happened in Houston, in my old neighborhood, at a corner where my daughter used to hang out in high school. But the pain in my heart over the hate and violence I now understand as an adult is overwhelming. We have to look deeper. What causes hate? My answer will be different than for someone else. We are all humans, but we are all different. 

All of us.