Control

Matthew 11:16-17 - For what shall I compare this generation to? It is like children that call to other children in the marketplace, saying, "We piped for you and you did not dance. We wept and you did not mourn."

We want our way! Boy do we. We will always find something to criticize about others. This makes me think of Fox News and their random critiques that have less than zero substance behind them. They are distractions from the true issues. Like kids who want to control how the game is played.

The Republican candidates for president are like this as well. Pandering to what is lowest and basest in human nature - self- centeredness, greed, avarice. Policing others' bodies while considering themselves as above the law. Controlling others will not fix America's problems, which are legion and getting worse because there is lack of compromise in Congress.

It is worse when they complain about the victims of violence and oppression. Living in Chicago, we get used to hearing about shootings on a daily basis. Yet, here in Rogers Park, we had one yesterday and it is suddenly too real. Women looking for their kids, people crying, anger, sadness, disruption in the community all for a feud that in the end will not matter to more than a handful of people and maybe not even then. There will be a retaliation. The only questions are when and who. When will it happen? and Who will be shot? Will it be an innocent bystander or not? Will it be a child? By the police harrassing black people rather than policing them like the rest of us, they have unleashed on Chicago and other places a terrorism that is growing rather than diminishing. Their actions feed the actions of gangs. By trying to control black people, they have created terrorists, just as the US has done with other countries.

Lord, forgive us. We do not know what we do. Open our eyes to see the beauty and wonder of your creation that includes others who are not like us. Help us to welcome them, their cultures, and their traditions as you would. Change our focus from the petty to the deep and meaningful, from wishful thinking to facts, from hatred to love.

B