We have all been horrified by the videos we have seen of the deadly shooting in Minneapolis – I say that with confidence because I have heard from my most conservative and most liberal friends, and all of them – all of us – are shocked by what we have seen. The videos are both clear and murky – they tell only part of the story of a tragic death and our government’s war on illegal immigration. I have watched the videos many times, and I am still not sure exactly what I am seeing. No matter what we want to believe, none of us knows yet what the truth is. None of us knows what the victim was actually doing or thinking. None of us knows what was going on inside the heads of the ICE agents. All these words we are hearing are a rush to judgment.
And yet, we have heard countless opinions – from the president to the guy bagging our groceries – from the far left to the far right and everything in between – about what they “know” happened on that snowy street in Minneapolis. She was a loving mother of three – and a radical, violent terrorist. She was a kind and caring person – and a subversive instigator. The ICE officer shot in self-defense – and he committed murder. Community leaders are calling for protests – state and local government leaders are telling ICE to stay out – federal government leaders are holding the line. And nobody knows much of anything yet.
I have been guilty, on occasion, of rushing to judgment, and I have almost always paid a price for it. We make assumptions (which makes an a$$ of you and me, I’m told). We toss out opinions (which, like body parts everyone has, usually stink) based on almost no information. And under all of this siloing and posturing and confident finger pointing, what we really are is afraid. Afraid of changing demographics and a changing way of life. Afraid of paying taxes for things we disagree with. Afraid that someone will get something we think we deserve, or, at least, they don’t. Afraid. And while some of our fears are reasonable, others are not. And it isn’t fear that is the only problem – it’s that we are allowing our fear to control our lives, and what it is really doing is destroying us. Take a breath. Wait for a valid investigation. Find out what really happened. Then, let’s talk more.
Prayer – Holy God, calm our souls as we try to figure out how to get along and listen. Hold us back from our desire for immediate answers. Sooth our need to rush to judgment. Amen.
Today’s art is “Essential Fear” by Evgenia Klimenko.