WHAT YOU DO :30 MINUTES EARLIER DOES COUNT

I have tried for some time to figure out where we missed it in this country.  How has so many of our values and core beliefs lost so much of their meaning?  Why can't we move forward at the pace we seem to have moved for over two hundred years?

In watching the tragic news coming out of Ferguson, Mo over the past several days I have come to the conclusion we have been sold a load of manure in the name of fairness, justice and what this country stands for.  The event from day one until today is exactly what I said it was, tragic.  For a young man to lose his life in such a way can never be excused or ignored by any people who value freedom and the other blessings we take too much for granted. This in not a commentary on why the city does not have a diverse political or police face.  It's about the line the outsiders are pushing as a defense of the madness.

The revelation to me I write about here today comes in the aftermath of the shooting itself.  Part of the justification for the rioting was the release of the video of the young man strong arming a store clerk and stealing what I understand was a few cigars.  The incidents are unrelated, published solely to assassinate the character of the young man we are told.  The leaders of the rioting community want to isolate only on the few minutes before and during the shooting of the young man.  It's a common theme and has been used forever, even to the point we as a nation take it for granted and have to some extent adopted it as a valid point.  The problem is this line of thinking is the core of the problem.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's in the smallest of white dominated southern towns.  We had a black community made up of around 13-20 families.  They were living under huge disadvantages.  The high school kids were bused to Russellville to school, they did have the worse jobs and living conditions in our little town, but they never lacked respect from the community they were a part of.  Wash Wallace, Sam Terrell, Vonie (PeeWee) Warren and many other men of the black community were respected for the men they were not because told the others to respect them.  They were men who worked to provide for their families. They found work when there were no jobs. They attended church with their families, loved their children and saw to it they had a better life.  I know many of their children today and they are model citizens, productive and no different from me.  These men were respected because they earned the respect.  Every color recognized the kind of men they were and treated them with that respect.  We probably did not give them as many opportunities and the town should have or does now but the respect we had was real and every bit earned.  Today the town is totally different, offering equal opportunities and a better life, but still the same in recognizing and giving respect where it is earned.

In my current home town the same principles exist.  I have many African-American friends who I see in every way my equals or in most cases superior in many.  I respect them for all they have done and accomplished, they have earned respect by the way they have lived, what values they champion and the simple way they live their lives.

What you did 30 minutes, days or years ago does make a difference.  How you act and inter-act with people does make a difference.  If you insist on living in an undisciplined, threatening and abusive way I am not going to respect you because I am told I must.  If you sack my groceries or weed my yard and are striving to live the American Way to move forward and get ahead then I will respect you and defend you to the end.

Al Sharpton and his elk can no more make me respect someone no more Superman is going to save the day. You can't separate life in :30 minute intervals.  Every man in this country deserves justice.  If the shooting was wrong then the guilty should be punished, but respect is not like God's Agape love, respect must be earned.