save the children...each and every one!!

 



The news again last night: "Two month old baby killed by a random shooter in north Minneapolis." Anyone familiar with the Twin Cities of Minnesota knows that the north side is the not so fun side. It is filled with gangs, poor families, people of many colors, creeds, thoughts and ideals. It has been the target of many random shootings in the past two years, with many children under age five as its victims.
This needs to stop. Even in the Old West, gangs didn't take out women and children, they knew who their intended was. We are so far removed from even that, it is ridiculous!

But how, you may ask? Aren't there police? Yes...but they arrive after the fact. We have a mayor who is in his last term, and has been rubbing elbows with rich businessmen, getting a new, hugely expensive football stadium built. He is also working hard to make sure that same sex couples from other states know they can come here to Minnesota to get married. In truth, he has little time for the sadness that has permeated north Minneapolis. I urge him to walk the streets of the north end, alone at night, with no bodyguards. I hear gasps from the crowd...but you know what I always say: if you're going to do the talkin'...you had better be doing the walkin'!

No, it is going to have to come down to the residents of that town. Get out there and mingle, activate for peace. Let the wrong element know that they are NOT welcome in your city any longer. This includes the gangs, the lone thugs, anyone who thinks that a life is worth less than the dirt on their feet! Get out there and show that peace is the buzz word! Clean up the graffiti, talk to people you normally may avoid, but band together as one against the scourges of poverty! Examples include: you may  not be able to afford to renovate the whole neighborhood, but if you can plant some flowers, he can slap on some fresh paint, she can wash windows, they can have an outdoor BBQ...do you see? Banding together against the poverty...let the wrong elements see that their acts of pain and hate will no longer be welcome in your neighborhood...and if more neighborhoods would do that...why, they literally have run out of room. "Move along, you are no longer welcome here, unless you can act with civility towards your neighbor." This is for any neighborhood...not just the poor ones in our society.

"Love your neighbor, even as I have loved you," Jesus said that!
Children have a right to grow up. "Let the little children come to Me and do not try to stop them, for the Kingdom of Heaven is for such as these." Jesus also said that...and He meant it!
Save the children...save each and every one!