FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The last few weeks have been to put it mildly, difficult; to describe what happened to George Floyd, tragic; and his murder and its effects on the world, traumatizing.  I saw a portion of this video once and could not watch, nor will I ever look at it in its totality.   At first, I did not understand what I was seeing, as the eyes don’t immediately focus on Mr. Floyd, but the officer standing in front, his hands folded in front of him, guarding the scene.  I looked again and my eyes focused on the Police Officer that seemed at first, to be kneeling on the ground, his hands in his pockets?  But where was Mr. Floyd?  My eyes took time to adjust and my mind forced my mouth to blurt out ” Oh my God is that his head!”.  His torso flat to the ground, his head forced sideways.  It was too much for my mind to take in.  I could not continue to watch.  It was a nightmare.  I changed the channel feeling as though I was a witness to murder, even after the fact. It did not happen to me but I felt violated.  It haunts me as I will never forget the look in his eyes.

Let’s be clear.  When a man takes the life of another, in this way, he is no longer a man.  He is no longer human.  He is an animal and there is no humanity in him.

For the African-American, the role of the enemy has always been to make us think that we are not free or equal. He didn’t know the real value of the people he brought from a land of Kings and Queens. Hatred is void of forward thinking.  No piece of paper can enslave a man and no piece of paper can set him free.  The slaves, after acclimatization to the system restraining them, planned and charted their own paths to freedom.  Appearances can be so deceitful. We have always been free. In chains we were free. In beatings, we were free.  No one can control our thoughts which ultimately lead to our actions.

You may say when our people were being hobbled, and beaten and lynched that was not just “Appearances”. No, it was blatant and ugly and hateful, an attempt to make us afraid and to make those in control of our bodies feel that they had some power over us. They did not have power over our minds. We have never been afraid, not even in slavery.  The degradation of our people, was designed to make us feel powerless, but we have always been powerful and the enemy knows just how powerful we are. 

The way of the enemy is to kill the spirit, to break it, to bury it. Our spirits could never be broken. He used race to separate us. So God blended the races in more ways than one. These are obstacles set in our way to hold us down. There is no holding us down.  The enemy works from a place of fear because he knows what a powerful people we are.  He uses economic restraints to stifle our prosperity and the power of politics to deny us our rights.  How small and insecure he must be to feel that our strength minimizes or threatens his existence.  How strong, how special we must be to have an enemy that seeks to kill us everyday, one way or another; and when he finds that he cannot he rears his ugly head and tries to physically hold us down. Break our necks. Stop our very breath. What a blessed people we must be! Is it possible that we are the key to bringing this world together as it was meant to be? One people.   Is that why the enemy is so angry?

Brothers and Sisters know this.  We are not a people of destruction, and we will not ask for permission because we do not need anyone’s permission to be.  Our goal is one of unification and fairness.  We will sit at the table and work through it, but we will not settle for inequity in the way we are treated, nor in the way that our children are treated. Realize people that there is only Good and Evil in this world. Look up, because your blessing is coming. Suit up and watch the enemy rage, his time is short.  Good conquers all!