national news

Yes, Mitt … remove the rebel flag

Mitt Romney has added his important voice to the cries of those who want South Carolina to take the Confederate flag down from its statehouse grounds.

Not all the leading politicians in this country have taken up the cause. This should be a no-brainer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/20/mitt-romney-confederate-flag_n_7627776.html

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee said once again that the flag symbolizes hate. Indeed, that symbol has overshadowed the “Southern pride” heritage that many still proclaim.

As Romney spoke out in the wake of that terrible Charleston, S.C., church massacre, other pols continue to hold their tongue.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican and presidential candidate, said the decision must rest ultimately with South Carolinians. Sure thing, senator, but South Carolina doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It is one of 50 united states, yes? Thus, it is totally fair for all Americans to express outrage that the state hasn’t taken down a flag that symbolizes — in the eyes of millions of us — the kind of hatred that produced the carnage in the Charleston Bible study classroom.

Another GOP presidential candidate, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, calls the flag “part of who we are” as Southerners. Oh, please. Hasn’t he seen that flag waving at Klan rallies where participants say those things about their fellow Americans who happen to be of different races?

I’m with Gov. Romney on this one.

Take down the rebel flag.

national news

Rebel flag still flying high in S.C.?

I can’t believe I just read this.

The flags flying atop the South Carolina state capitol building — the Stars and Stripes and the state flag — were lowered to half-staff to honor the memories of the nine victims shot to death in the Charleston church.

But the Confederate flag that flies on the grounds in front of the capitol building is flying high.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/south-carolinas-confederate-flag-not-lowered-half-mast-after-church-n378316

Why is that? Apparently state law requires the legislature to sign off on how the rebel flag is displayed.

Gov. Nikki Haley has authority over the flags flying over the capitol dome. She doesn’t have exclusive say over the Confederate flag.

You know the story. A young white man — an apparent white supremacist — killed nine black congregants while studying the Bible with them.

The Confederate flag represents to many of us the very racism that likely drove the shooter to do what he did.

The flag doesn’t deserve to fly on public property.

That it remains at the top of the staff that holds it is insulting in the extreme.

 

national news, political news

That’s the ticket: blame the victim

National Rifle Association board member Charles Cotton has exhibited an amazing capacity for heartlessness.

He has placed the blame for the shocking shooting deaths of nine Charleston, S.C., church members on one of the victims.

Despicable.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/nra-board-member-blames-clementa-pinckney-charleston-shooting-119202.html?ml=po

Cotton’s narrative goes something like this: One of the victims is state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who voted against legislation allowing South Carolinians to carry concealed handguns. Had the measure passed, according to Cotton, the victims would be alive.

According to Politico: “And he voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead,” Cotton responded to the post on Thursday afternoon. “Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”

Pinckney, who was pastor of the church where the carnage occurred, is responsible for this tragedy. Did you get that?

What in the world is Charles Cotton, a Texas NRA board member, thinking in trying to blame one of the victims killed in that rampage?

Suppose for a moment that someone in the church was packing a pistol when the gunman opened fire. Is the NRA board member certain that he or she could have stopped the shooter on the spot — without anyone else suffering grievous injury or death on the melee?

Good grief! It’s been only four days since the tragedy erupted in that house of worship.

Can’t there be some sort of cooling-off period? Can’t we wait a reasonable length of time before leveling blame? And for crying out loud, can’t we declare “hands off!” the memory of one of the victims of this senseless act?

 

local news

Amarillo has a project worth emulating

DODGE CITY, Kan. — The people who run the city where I’ve lived for the past 20 years have taken plenty of hits of late.

Some of it is deserved. Some of it is not.

But as my wife and I have visited Dodge City for the past few days, we’ve noticed a project that could do some good here. It reminds us of a project that’s been done in Amarillo.

Rails to Trails in Amarillo was developed some years ago by converting an abandoned railroad right-of-way into a hiking and biking park complex.

We’ve discovered an abandoned rail line in Dodge City, just a few hundred yards from the RV park where we’ve stayed. It looks for all the world like the Rails to Trails park used to look as it coursed through Amarillo for slightly less than 4 miles.

Grass has overgrown the railroad ties and the rails themselves. Indeed, the neighborhood surrounding the Dodge City rail line looks a lot like the San Jacinto neighborhood that borders much of what once was a crappy old rail line running through Amarillo.

Rails to Trails remains a work in progress. I visited recently with the city parks department administrator about plans to finish a long-standing project connecting neighborhoods with hiking and biking paths; Rails to Trails is part of the unfinished work.

The park, though, gives the neighborhood along its route a much better look than it had before it was developed — and for that the city deserves high praise.

Dodge City isn’t nearly the size of Amarillo, but it has precisely the same kind of potential staring it down.

It runs along an old rail line that ought to be turned into park.

 

 

political news

‘Accident’ becomes new ‘oops’ moment … maybe

Rick Perry had an “accident” in an interview dealing with the Charleston, S.C., massacre.

He called the attack that killed nine church members an “accident.”

The former Texas governor’s handlers sought to take it back, saying he meant to call it an “incident.”

But the damage may have been done. Social media took off like a rocket with the “accident” comment, comparing it to Perry’s infamous “oops” gaffe uttered during a debate in the 2012 GOP primary season.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/19/perrys-accident-incident/

The carnage created allegedly Dylann Roof was no “accident,” clearly. Heck, I wouldn’t settle for the word “incident” to describe it. It’s much, much worse.

But as social media thought to make hay about the former governor’s gaffe, I’m struck by the lack of response from Rick Perry himself.

I’m not interested in hearing what his press flack says about what Gov. Perry intended to say.

As expected, Perry sought to frame his response in part against how he characterized President Obama’s reaction to it, contending that the president hates guns so much that he would prefer to disarm Americans. Oh, never mind that the president has declared his support of the Second Amendment.

So …

Governor? What did you intend to say? And please, don’t just parrot what your press person has said what you meant.

national news

Where do these people find forgiveness?

The loved ones of the men and women Dylann Roof allegedly shot to death have done what?

They have forgiven the young man? They say that if God can forgive him, how can they not?

Families forgive accused church shooter

This one is going to take some time for me to process.

Roof stands accused of killing nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C. It appears to have been a racially motivated massacre. He is known to have said he wanted to start a “civil war” and that he believes blacks and whites shouldn’t mix.

So, he went to a Bible study, was welcomed by the African-American church members. He sat with those victims for an hour — and then he opened fire.

Today, he went to court for an arraignment and several family members said they forgive this individual for committing a monstrous act of terror against them and those he killed in cold blood.

I consider myself a committed Christian. I know what Scripture says about forgiveness, how Jesus Christ urges us to love one another, no matter the sin. He didn’t distinguish among sins, never said one sin was greater than another.

What the young man is accused of doing, though, crosses a line that makes his alleged sin far greater than, say, using impolite language.

Could I forgive someone for doing something that Dylann Roof is accused of doing?

Hypothetical questions are tough to answer.

Perhaps one day, I could.

One day.

Perhaps.

From my perch halfway across the country where this carnage occurred, I harbor intense anger toward this young man.

I stand amazed that those who are suffering such intense grief and heartbreak can find it in them to forgive.

 

national news

Attention turns to Confederate flag

1 Comment

Just as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas is able legally to deny issuing motor vehicle license plates depicting the Confederate flag, the issue of flying the flag in South Carolina has emerged to become a central discussion topic.

The Confederate flag flies in front of the state capitol in Columbia, S.C. But over on the Atlantic Coast, in Charleston, a young man this week opened fire in a predominantly black church, killing nine worshipers in a horrifying massacre.

Dylann Roof admitted to committing the crime today in court, so we can take away the “alleged” description of the person who did the terrible deed.

Why? The young man is a raving racist, according to those who know him.

Thus, we get back to the issue of the rebel flag. What does it represent? To many Americans, it symbolizes hatred. It flies at Ku Klux Klan rallies, where Americans proclaim their “pride” in a movement that enslaved other Americans.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/take-down-the-confederate-flag-now/396290/?utm_source=SFTwitter

The flag should come down. It shouldn’t fly on the South Carolina’s capitol grounds. It should be put away, never to be seen in public.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has it within her power to remove the flag. She should act.

Think about this, too: Charleston was where the Confederate States of America fired the first shots that ignited the Civil War. They bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor and thus began the bloodiest war in American history. Why? Because the Confederate states had seceded from the Union because they claimed that as individual states, they had the power to own slaves.

The flag symbolizes hatred, the kind of hatred that prompted Dylann Roof to attack people — in a place of worship.

Bring it down, Gov. Haley.

 

 

national news

‘Race-baiting’? Please

There’s no real need to say much more than what’s in this blog about the Charleston, S.C., carnage.

Jim Mitchell writes for the Dallas Morning News and he devoted the following post to answering someone who accused him of “race-baiting.”

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/06/another-failed-chat-about-race-in-america.html/

Mitchell is on-point in telling the letter writer that he/she is trying to deflect responsibility of what happened in Charleston by saying it was allegedly committed by a “deranged white man.”

Nine people are dead. They are victims of a mass murderer. He concludes: “Let’s stop playing games of racial original sins, and recognize that racial tensions are denying this country of the opportunity to reach new heights for all Americans. That’s not race-baiting. That’s asking for justice and fairness, nothing more and nothing less.”

Now, let us continue to pray for our country and for the souls of those who were lost.

legal news

Suspect’s ‘character’ being revealed

Dylann Roof is a vicious young man.

He’s accused of killing nine people in a Bible study at a Charleston, S.C. church. The victims were black; Roof is white. Now we hear that he’d planned for months to carry out an attack like what occurred at the church.

He is angry that African-Americans are seeking to “take over the world,” said his roommate.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/charleston-shooting-suspect-dylann-roof-wanted-to-ignite-civil-war/ar-AAbOWk8

What on God’s Earth do we think of this fellow?

Just as important, what on Earth does this individual’s deep-seated hatred symbolize in the world at large?

I won’t for a moment believe he speaks for many others. He does, though, allegedly speak to some terrible, dark instincts that do exist. That one man has acted on them must suggest that he is not totally alone.

I happen to be frightened at what the shooter exhibited in that house of worship.

Now we ask: How does this individual face justice? Do the feds try him for committing a hate crime or do we let the state of South Carolina prosecute Roof for murder?

Whether he committed a hate crime really doesn’t matter as much as some folks believe it does. The individual who did this horrible deed killed nine victims in a brutal attack. He will qualify for the death penalty if a jury — either state or federal — convicts him.

My hope at this moment is to pray for the men and women who died at the hands of one whose anger twisted out of control.

I’d say we should pray for the shooter as well … except that I can’t go there. Maybe one day. Just not now.

 

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