Wednesday, September 21, 2011

I am We


Well here I am. 5 months since my last post. They certainly have gotten to have more space in between them. And between this and my last post you'd think I'd permanently moved onto a soapbox. But I don't care. Not right now at least.


I'm sure if you're my friend on Facebook, you may think I'm an eyesore right about now. From political nonsense that I've been posting to the posts about all the executions I've been learning about lately.


More importantly right now is about the latter, but I'm almost positive the former will come up again. Probably in a post.


Now, when asked in the past, I could very easily tell you I was pro-life. I only realized recently just how pro-life I was and exactly what that meant to me.


It all started a few weeks ago when Megs got me hooked on politics. I can officially tell you about any candidate running and have well rounded opinions on all of them. My least favorite candidate happens to be the frontrunner. I realized he was my least favorite candidate when he was asked a question concerning whether it had ever phased him that he had executed more people in his 11 years as governor than anyone else anywhere else. Not only did he say no, but the crowd actually started applauding when they announced the official total at 234.


Don't worry, my opinion will come.


This lead us to looking into all these executions to find cases not only where people who's guilt was questionable, but cases where the sentencing was based on race. One such case was suppose to be coming to a close last week at the execution of another man. His guilt was not in question, everyone knows he did it. The problem is that to be sentenced to death in Texas, they have to have reason to believe that you'd probably commit this crime or be violent again in the future. Without ever meeting this man, a psychiatrist said he should be put to death based on his race and the jury accepted that. They stayed his execution last minute.


Because of all the commotion that Duane Buck's case had brought up, we noticed that another individual was going to be executed in Georgia, Troy Davis. This case has been widely publicized and covered by just about every kind of media worldwide there possibly was. While they were once positive this man killed a cop who was coming to the aid of a homeless man, 7 of the 9 eye witnesses recanted they're stories. One of the 2 that didn't recant was the man that not only turned Troy Davis in, but was the other man with Davis involved in the crime. A couple of the people that recanted said that they were coerced into blaming Davis and a couple said that Sylvester Coles (the other man) admitted to having shot Officer MacPhail. Who's telling the truth? Well, honestly I don't think we'll ever know.


I haven't cried much lately, but both of the times I have recently have to do with these 2 men. The first, because I was reminded of just how merciful God is. And the second was when the Supreme Court denied another stay to Troy Davis an hour ago.


I don't think it's fair. It's a complete travesty. Execution doesn't provide justice, it creates resentment, hate, and holes in the hearts of his loved ones.


I guess you can see which side of the fence I'm on.


It makes most sense to me. I think I can Biblically support what I believe in. I would argue it with anyone. Even after everything that I've been through, there's not a doubt in my mind that 2 murders don't bring anyone back and that "an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." Gandhi.


So as I sat praying, for (I'll admit) the second time in the past 2 weeks, I asked that God find another way to save him. To stop this because I knew He could. My clock said 10:07 and I just didn't know what to think. I knew it would start after 10, from following a live blog of updates, but I kept thinking that news would come that there was a power outage or a shift was changing or there had been a big misunderstanding or they just changed their minds because it didn't feel right. And that's when I started this...but shortly, very shortly thereafter:



"Georgia inmate Troy Davis was executed Wednesday night for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.


Davis died at 11:08 p.m. ET, according to a prison official. The execution was about four hours later than initially scheduled, because prison officials waited for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Davis' request for a stay."



That's it. Just like that he's gone and I just kinda feel sick. Nothing about this seems right or natural. I'm trying to figure out where I was when God came down and gave humans the right to start killing each other off. The last thing I heard on the subject is don't murder, don't seek revenge, turn the other cheek, and leave it Him. But I very easily could have missed it. Probably while I was in Australia. And as I sat here thinking about how unfair it was, God reminded me of my very first post. The one about Trent. I remember when he died. I remember not only thinking about how unfair it was, but how young he was and how noble he was. I remember that I wrote him a letter, that I put in the box with many others, and that I said that I knew there was a purpose for everything, sometimes we're patient enough to wait for it and other times we're just blinded by emotion, but that doesn't make His plan any less prevalent.


So that's what I've been thinking about. What does God want me to do with this? How is this helping me become who I'm supposed to be? Why has this been on my heart lately? Why am I so convicted in how I feel? Why do I care about criminals?


I can't say for sure. I don't know what His plans are, but I think it's because I know the feeling. I think it's because I'm a sinner. Because I'm learning that I'm not any better than they are and that eventually my sins will weigh out equally. I think it's because He knew He'd get my attention. I think it's to remind me that bad things happen to good people so that other good people can step up and be more like Jesus. I think I'm supposed to step up. I think Troy's death is going to send shock waves of change that inspire people to be different. To think different. To act different. To believe differently. His life may have ended, but I think this is just the beginning.


In the face of despair, tragedy, and injustice, we have to believe in God and the work He's still doing not only in us, but through us. Even when we don't realize it. Even in our deaths.


Well, I love.


Yes, I love you. But I also just love because that's what I was asked to do. Unconditionally. Non-judgmentally. Everyone. Everywhere. All the time. No matter what. Because that's what He does for me. And for you. And for Duane Buck. And for Troy Davis. We are just who we are (thank you, Ke$ha). I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together (thank you Beatles).

No comments:

Post a Comment