Perspective on Justice

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment." Deut. 16:18.

Many years ago ,on this blog, I commented on how many things that we see or believe are really a matter of perception. I had been looking at low hanging clouds over a place in Vermont where you see across the valley to Mt. Washington and there were a lot of clouds hanging low, with trailers, on them and it really looked beautiful. Yet had I been looking at them in Tornado country, such as Arkansas, I would have been in panic mode because they would have looked like funnel type clouds.
Perspective.

I didn't panic because I knew the truth of things. I knew the facts. I was in Vermont, where tornadoes are rare, though not unheard of, and it was the wrong time of the year for them.

Perspective and facts need to apply to the case in Florida of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. We don't have all the information, we have little more then a one sided view of what happened and yet people are so angry that some have put a bounty on the head of Zimmerman.

The only thing that is known 100% is that there was an altercation between Martin and Zimmerman and that in that altercation Martin was shot and killed. That's it. You might think that's enough to convict someone of murder, but it's not. You can't even claim that it was a hate crime because there isn't any hard evidence. All the facts, in this case, are simply not known.There is no proper perspective.

As a teenager I was convicted for a crime that I never committed on nothing more then hearsay and some pretty poor circumstantial evidence. No witnesses to said crime and the only real "proof" was the confession of the kid that actually did commit the crime and a sneaker print that was within a size or two of my own shoes. Not much to go on but I was convicted and humiliated none the less.

I also understand being hated because of race. I am of the half breed Hispanic variety and I have been hated at various times and places and threatened simply based on my skin color or my name. This has happened as recently as 3 weeks ago. I do understand.

So as you can see I am sympathetic to both families involved, but again I submit to you, lets have all the facts and a proper perspective before anyone else gets hurt.

God calls on us to have a fair and impartial justice system “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment." Deut. 16:18. In Joshua chapter 20 they established cities of refuge so that someone, who accidentally killed someone, could flee there for protection, until which time they could stand trial, see verses 6 and 9. Justice and proper perspective working together.

We don't know what happened. The accused, by the media , not the police, is in hiding and in fear of his life. The Black Panthers have put a price on his head. Jesse Jackson, who claims to be a Christian and should know better then to do this, along with Al Sharpton, are fueling the fire of hatred and prejudice, the very things that they would have marched against back in the 60's. And, lest we forget, there is a dead young man and a grieving family. This is not the way to handle things. Never has been.This is not justice or a proper perspective.

If after ALL the evidence is presented it is found that Zimmerman is guilty, then let justice take it's course because only then will we have the perspective that is needed to convict, but do not make the mistake of convicting a man of a crime,especially one as bad as this one, with out due process and without all the evidence being presented in a court of law.

Only once all the evidence is made clear, will you have the proper perspective and only then can justice can be served.

Shalom.

Clean Insults

After a week or so of listening to the whole media storm over the Rush Limbaugh comments and the lack of coverage of the rest of the media ,who's vulgarity is much worse, I thought instead of attempting to wax eloquent as to their vile conduct, I thought, (I know me thinking is a scary concept) rather, that I would attempt to help them understand that the English language is by far more colorful then the rather crude sexual metaphors that they have been using. In this attempt I hope that some of the American public might take notice that it is possible to speak without being crude, and let the hot air bags of self righteous un-evolved monkeys know that enough is enough.

Here goes nothing.

You sir are a bumbling idiot. This phrase, while short, certainly gets right to the heart of the matter but also leaves some room for improvement on the part of the one being insulted.

For the sports aficionado I present " You (sir or madam) are as screwed up as a football bat. If this comment makes no sense to you then perhaps it was meant for you.

For my southern friends, Bless your heart, if you was any dumber your brain would be on the side of a milk carton, again if you don't get it , it probably applies, just sayin...

This one would work in political circles, though it could be applied all most any where; You are a loud mouthed, toothless buffoon who has about as much sense as a dog chasing a cat in traffic.

You have the serious taste of the Dung Beetle, Your body odor would be offensive to Skunks, You are dumber then a rock..and that's an insult to the rock.....

So whats my point? I just took a few minutes and off the top of my head found ways to insult people with out being crude or vulgar about it. If with my minimal education, and some would suggest, minimal intellect , can come up with a few insults without the help of a writer or a teleprompter, how can it be that these people who get paid millions to speak in public every day can't do it?

I have been known from time to time, to get ugly with people and call some one an idgit or a fool, particularly when angry, but I would like to think in this so called progressive , enlightened, world that we could just leave the crude insults behind and rather discusses the issues in a loud but much less disgusting way.

Someone once said to me that words don't really mean anything unless you give them permission to mean something. I would have to disagree. We know what these crude words mean, and we know that when used as an insult that they are meant to hurt and destroy a person, if you don't think that is true, then just imagine it being your daughter who is being insulted in such a crude manner and then come back and tell me it doesn't really matter.

The bottom line is that I think the Bible has some pretty good ideas of how to handle our words and if we followed it we might find that we can debate with out being crude and sound a lot more intelligent doing it.

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Prov. 16:24

Do not be rash with your mouth,And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.For God is in heaven, and you on earth;Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes through much activity, And a fool’s voice is known by his many words. Eccl. 5:2-3
Shalom