A big story that has surfaced recently involves four African American youths, ages 18–24, who held a mentally challenged white youth in bondage while they tortured him. The perpetrators are now in custody and will stand trial for the dastardly act. Allegedly, they shouted racial epithets at their captive, and used the name Trump while abusing their victim. Interestingly, the teen was a friend of one of his attackers and was in Chicago visiting him.
The young man eventually escaped, and is now recovering from non-life-threatening injuries, but he will undoubtedly suffer psychological damage from the experience. This was a terrible act by any standards of morality. Even though this is a true story, a lot of African Americans can’t help but recall a situation some time ago where white teens invited two Black friends to a gathering and ended up torturing and killing them.
Admittedly, there was publicity around the situation, but it seems that the outcry around this most recent event is overkill. Though both acts were egregious, the Black teens SEEM to be getting far more attention than their white counterparts, even though their victim was not killed, as were the Black teens who were victimized by their white friends. The truth of the matter, however, is that two wrongs don’t make a right.
We can’t blame every outrageous act on president-elect Donald Trump, but we can acknowledge the fact that his reckless xenophobic rhetoric has helped set the tone for an increasing degeneracy among the American populace. On the other hand, we must also admit the fact that general decency in America has been eroding for quite a few years. Ultimately, the blame for all of the evil mayhem in our country (and our world) boils down to spiritual retardation.
This is the real problem! For example, one of the young ladies implicated in the attack on the white youth allegedly went downstairs to her neighbor’s home, who had complained about the noise, and verbally abused the woman and allegedly stole items from her home. That was an example of spiritual retardation!
The climate in this country (and around the globe) is increasingly volatile, as shown by the growing numbers of random attacks on citizens in public places. People are stirred up, frustrated, and they are taking it out on those who have nothing to do with their circumstances. We are becoming an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth society. No one wins in that kind of scenario.
And the sad fact is that we stand to get further involved in retaliatory behavior, since our incoming political leader, the most powerful man in the free world, advocates the use of that strategy.
One of the reasons that people feel emboldened to behave in a manner that is selfish and, actually evil, is because people have been convinced that there will be no repercussions. A great number of people have completely embraced a materialistic outlook on life and refuse to believe that anything else exists; they refuse to believe that you reap what you sow.
One of the things exacerbating this situation is the behavior of religious and political leaders who are blatant advocates of materialism. People have been known to complain about leaders who have prosperity as a goal, without connecting the dots between people’s actions and the responsibility that we all have for one another.
Whatever affects one group on this planet will affect everyone else, one way or another. Snowballing crime in urban areas causes people to move away, leaving those behind with few resources. Whites who want to rid the world of Blacks and others, are showing deep, deep spiritual retardation, in that it takes all kinds to keep the world productive.
A need for diversity is real, and those who do not understand this run the risk of making it bad for everyone. Just ask someone who survived the decimation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the last World War. If something like that should happen again, there will be greater consequences because more nations possess nuclear weapons. Yet, some of the world’s current leaders are still willing to play footsie with the notion of an arms race.
Heaven forbid if the spiritually retarded camp wins out. If it does, the biblical admonition of “The fire next time” just might come true. A luta continua.
