1809- 3 THINGS

First- Sanford Florida.

The case of Zimmerman and the Black kid.

As most of you have heard by now- Zimmerman was this neighborhood watch guy and he saw a Black kid walking thru the area.

To Zimmerman- for whatever reason- he thought the kid looked suspicious [you know- Black kid walking- yeah- very strange!]

So as any good citizen would do- he stalked the kid!

As you listen to the 911 calls- it seems as if this Black kid realized some guy in a vehicle is following him and he gets scared.

Even though the dispatcher tells Zimmerman not to follow the kid- Zimmerman replies ‘these type always get away’.

Then you hear from the 911 tapes- Zimmerman confronts the scared kid- the kid is screaming for his life- and Zimmerman kills him- you know- with the gun he uses for ‘self defense’.

No arrest- the cops say it was self defense.

Geez- if this was self defense- keep me away from Sanford.

Obviously Zimmerman murdered the kid in cold blood.

Sure- maybe he should not get convicted for the most severe type of murder- but this guy needs to go to prison for this stunt.

Second- George Clooney.

This past week Clooney has made the rounds on the talk shows- and even got arrested at the Sudanese embassy in D.C.

He has been bringing awareness to the tragedy going on in the Sudan [Africa].

Last year I wrote a few posts on the situation. Sudan had a referendum and the south split from the north.

Clooney did say ‘this is the world’s most recent nation’.

Actually he got that wrong [go back a post or 2 and read my post on Barqa].

But overall he did well.

What’s going on in Sudan is actually worse than what’s happening in Syria.

In Syria- the president- Assad- has indiscriminately bombed civilian cities [Homs] - it is an overreaction that has killed many innocent people [some estimates are around 10,000].

But yet- it is a ‘reaction’.

A response to a popular uprising in the country.

In Sudan- the govt. is simply dropping [literally- rolling them off the planes] bombs on women and children- to get them to move out of the Nuba mountain area- so the govt. can take the land.

The people living in the area- they have already missed the last year of the planting season- and they can’t plant this year because of the bombs- many are on the verge of starvation- and they are living under rocks and in caves because of the bombing.

This truly is a tragedy- and I commend Clooney for his activism.

And last but not least- sergeant Bales.

Yes- we now have had a few reports on the soldier accused of killing 16 civilian Afghans.

As the portrait is being drawn- we see a sad story.

By all accounts Bales grew up as a great kid- well liked and a truly good guy.

He joined the military a few months after 911- and was one of those kids who said ‘this won’t happen on my watch’ type of thing.

He had already seen multiple tours of duty in combat zones- and suffered some severe injuries as a result [lost part of his foot and had some head injuries].

He is married and has 2 small kids.

He owned 2 homes- one was foreclosed on- the other he agreed to sell at a 50,000 dollar loss- one of those unfortunate guys who is ‘underwater’ on his mortgage [you owe more than the house is worth].

On his wife’s blog- she wrote that they were trying to deal with these losses by the possibility that their next tour of duty would be in Germany- Italy or maybe Hawaii.

Bales said the military told him they would not send him back into a combat zone.

Then he got the news that they were going to Afghanistan instead.

Now- all these things obviously do not justify the killing of civilians- but we need to see that our govt. also plays a role- a responsibility- if we are stressing guys to the limit.

The day before the incident- Bales witnessed his friend getting his leg blown off.

Everybody in the company was upset about the injury.

It is said that Bales was drinking the day of the killings- and by all accounts- it looks like a tragic story of a good man- who snapped.

In all these cases- the killing of the Black kid- Sudan- and Bales- we as a nation get mad.

We see the injustices- the victims- and even the very real humanity of those who perpetrate the crime [Bales].

We want- and should- give people the benefit of the doubt.

But we should also make sure we are not simply overlooking a real crime- because it’s just easier to say ‘oh- self defense’.

The 2 chapters I recommend for the week are John chapter 3 [born again- Jesus] and Ephesians chapter 2 [saved by grace].

If I remember I will comment on them before the week is out.

But they do talk about forgiveness- God sending his Son into the world- not to condemn the world- but to save it.

As we pray for these situations- and also seek justice where it needs to be done [Sudan- Fla.] we need to keep in mind both sides [Bales].

While we never want to overlook a serious offense- we also want to be aware of the overall situation.

Are we stressing our guys too much?

Should guys who have had multiple serious injuries- loosing parts of their limbs- should we be sending them into combat zones 3 or 4 times?

Like I said- no excuses for the wrong done- but have we also done wrong- by putting him there?

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John