It's time for someone to stand up and say enough is enough. The whole world is going crazy, and here in the USA we are no different. We have lost sight of what is important, what we stand for and most of all we have forgotten to love our neighbors. Darren Wilson and Michael Brown are prime examples of this.
Michael was shot and killed by Officer Wilson, we all know this, we are well aware. So what are we missing? Well I am here to tell you.
Respect, lack of respect, pure and simple and teaching methods. We are so caught up in why Michael was shot and how race is playing a role. Lets talk about lack of respect. Michael allegedly, (on video) walked into a gas station and robbed it, he bowed up at the owner/worker he then got really bold and confronted a cop. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that? I am NOT saying he deserved to die, in my opinion no one deserves that, I am not even for the death penalty. I just want to talk about the other issues. Everyone is soooo focused on race! The adults are the ones teaching the kids to see race. Kids do not know what race issues are until they are taught, it seems there are way to many parents of young African American children teaching their children that white people hate them. I am white and I do not see a single one of my students as black, white, Indian, Asian or any other race, I see them a beautiful, smart, amazing humans! I love them dearly. That is how I was taught. So lets talk about the real issues here. The PARENTS. They are the ones teaching their child how to act and how to think. Michael had no right to rob anyone, he had no right to dis-respect a cop, none of our sons and daughters have that right. I remember back when cops, firemen, teachers, grandparents, pastors and the President were something/someones to be respected. Now days we teach our children to put the grandparents in a home, call cops pigs, lie to our pastors, trash talk the President, cuss out teachers and God forbid we take our firemen cookies and see the fire trucks! As a teacher I see parents take the side of their children every time, and every time evidence is presented that tells the parent otherwise. But still that child can do no wrong in the parents eyes, the teachers are just picking on poor little "johnny". When my daughters teachers call me, and they do, I take their side, I demand my daughter respects her teacher and her learning environment, she would never dare call her teacher a liar, let alone disrespect a police officer, officers are some of the worlds most courageous people and should be treated as such, like heros. C'mon people, it is time to wake up, our country is falling apart and it is because of us, the adults, teaching our babies. WE are the ones causing messes like this. It has nothing to do with race. It has to do with a series of tiny actions made by one person that caused a huge devastating mess. Even if Officer Wilson is racist, it came from somewhere. Respect begins in the home, when our children are babies. As an outsider I will say that if the store robbing was indeed real, then it is obvious Michael had zero respect. He went in and took what he wanted. When an officer told him to do something, he appears did not comply. Where did he learn this behavior? Again I will say that, I am NOT saying the shooting was justified, there is NOT one among us that can say that. We don't know, we really don't. I am simply talking about what we do know based on evidence. I have friends of mine saying, "you have no idea what its like to grow up black" nope! I sure don't, but I do know what its like to grow up not good enough, to feel hated and un-loved, to hang in rough neighborhoods. I know what its like to not be what society deems normal or right.
If you are a race that you feel is looked down upon, then do something about it, be different. What I see is people conforming to the vision of what they think others think of them. Seriously, I have heard this statement more times than I can count "aw c'mon Mrs. D all black people are loud, its just how we are" Really? Really? Where did they get that? Who taught them that? I am white and I am loud....just sayin.... It has NOTHING to do with color, but everything to do with culture and up-bringing. If you want to change the way others view YOU as a person, than act different than what people assume. I teach my students to act the part they want to play in life, always dress for the position you want, not the one you have.
Can anyone reading this say that all the looting, fires, and craziness helped with that association? I saw people out with their small children protesting, peacefully, which was sweet, or so many think. Let me tell you what I see when I see people with tiny children protesting, I see a three year old that has no idea whats going on, but who is being taught by his parents to act first, think later. That 3 year old is going to become someone in the classroom, or on the job who thinks everyone hates him, he should give no respect to anyone until its "earned" and who will never think first. What should be happening is children should be taught to gather ALL the FACTS, not assumptions, facts. Gather facts, then think, weigh the consequences, and then act. Acting should be last. There is not one single protester that has all the facts. Law enforcement doesn't even have all the facts yet, hence the reason no charges have been made or denied. Officer Wilsons life is at stake here, and thankfully there are people out there thinking things through before just throwing him in jail. Just exactly what is being protested? Things made up based on assumptions. It is wrong, it is not okay, and the news really should have less coverage so the folks that just want to be news famous will go home. There is a much bigger world at war falling apart that we should be educating our children about. Not teaching them violence. Parents, it starts in the home, YOUR home.
Officer Wilson is someones SON, yup, that's right. He is someones son, someones hero too I am sure! He is a SOMEONE. Not one single person alive other than Officer Wilson knows what really happened that fateful day, not one person. Including so called witnesses. Those witnesses have zero credibility in my humble opinion, it seems most of them are just wanting to be on the news, it is in their body language, and very obvious I might add.
Darren Wilson deserves to be treated with respect, he is a man, a man in an honorable profession, he is an Officer, and deserves to be called by that title. He is a human, not someone to be blamed for murder, when in fact that might not be the case.
Ask yourself the what ifs. What if Michael was charging at him? What if Michael was charging you? He was a big boy. In this life we say safety first, what if that's all it was? Should Officer Wilson have waited until he saw a gun pointed at him or a knife at his throat before he shot? I think not. Simply stated, blows to the head can kill a person, hands can be as deadly as any weapon. Concrete meeting with a person head has caused many deaths, what if he had gotten knocked down....who knows!? What if Officer Wilson was truly acting in what he deemed to be the safest method possible? Then what he did would be justified, I am certain he did not empty his gun, unless he carried one that only held 6 shots, but chances are it held 12. I do not think there is a single person out there that would stop to wait and see if they were going to die before defending themselves. I am certain Michael didn't have the intent to kill Officer Wilson, but how was he to know that? Instead he shot at him, until he fell. Which is policy. Shoot until the person stops. We have heard so many experts talk about the head shots and what position Michael had to of been in. They are all different! I don't think there is an honest person in the world that wants to be on this jury.
If we stopped to think about it, if Officer Wilson really wanted to shoot someone because of color, don't you think he would have picked on someone in the dark, where there were no witnesses? Instead it happened in daylight, where there could have been a hundred people see it. It doesn't make sense that it was a hate crime, instead everything we know points to something else.
What if Michael didn't do anything wrong and Officer Wilson really was just hateful, do you think Michael would want all the rage, the terrorizing of his home, his town to occur? Do you think he would want hate, and un-forgiveness to be harbored in the hearts of those he loved? I doubt it.
You draw your own conclusions.
CNN I am so appalled by your take on this story, the reporters you have that are taking sides without evidence. Anderson and Erin have been objective and have tried to discuss all points of view without taking a side, I am glad for that or you would have lost me as a viewer. They are the best anyway.
To wrap up this letter, I will say that my point is no matter what did or did not happen, we the people are allowing this issue to divide us even further then before. All this is going to do is make every officer afraid to defend themselves or us. It will cause many people to grow a new kind of hatred in their hearts, justice will be served, when we figure out what that justice really is. Right now, the justice being demanded is not based on fact. Only hearsay. It is time to stop. Time to band together, to learn a lesson, to become a great nation again by learning to love our neighbors as ourselves.
To all the parents out there, when your grown up teen baby walks into my class, they are not a race, they are THEM, they are a name, a person with unbelievable brilliance that I will find and teach them to cultivate in the year(s) they are with me. My heart bleeds for the parents who have lost their children due to any reason. My prayers are with Michaels family and Darrens family. May all things work together in the end to grow us all closer together.
-J
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