Baltimore (coming to a city near you- part II)
WARNING- What you’re about to read may arouse anger- please read carefully, to the end, prior to jumping to conclusions.
When all is said and done, and when all (God willing) tempers cool, the fact of the matter is that we will never KNOW whether Freddie Gray injured himself, on purpose or accidentally, or whether his injuries were as a result of the way he was handled by the Baltimore Police Department. Those who believe that Freddie Gray was a victim of police brutality will continue to believe this, despite any or all evidence to the contrary. Those who believe that Freddie Gray injured himself, accidentally, or on purpose as a means to achieve whatever he may have wanted to achieve, will continue to believe this, despite any or all evidence to the contrary. Nothing will sway either position in the minds of those who have made up their minds- any and all evidence be damned.
And, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
What DOES matter- the thing that really sticks out- is how we are going to proceed from here.
No amount of protests, no amount of marching, no amount of screaming, no amount of looting, nor assaults on police officers, nor fires, nor arrests, nor speaking in platitudes, is going to bring Freddie Gray back to life, nor will it calm a troubled city, nor will it achieve law and order, nor social justice, nor anything of value to society as a whole. No amount of spending public funds will help people better their lot in life. No politically-motivated study group will arrive at an answer on how to cure that which ails us, and no amount of political rhetoric is going to change people of all races, in the way that they need to be changed- None.
What is needed in Baltimore, what is needed in America, or for that matter, the world, itself, cannot and will not be purchased, nor legislated, nor forced through political correctness, nor force of arms, nor bullying by others. What is needed, quite simply, will not come from without, but rather from within, which is why the solution to that which ails us is so evasive, so delicate, so nuanced and yet, so damned simple that it is tragic in its simplicity.
Each of us, all of us, this writer included, need to reach deep inside and ask ourselves “how?”. How are we going to get along with one another? How are we going to make our communities safe? How are we ever going to arrive upon that which has eluded humanity since Cain slew Abel? How are we going to make the world around us a better place for all of God’s children?
This much is certain. If we as individuals, if we as a community, if we as a nation and as a world, fail to search within ourselves, and seek the light within all of the darkness, seek truth within the clamor of garish noise, seek peace within ourselves, and with those with whom we encounter, then we are doomed as a people, and as a nation, and as a world, whose most intelligent form of life is otherwise going to extinguish itself.
-Drew Nickell. 30 April 2015
©2015 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved