Let’s get this out of the way: Yes… ALL lives matter. Absolutely, positively, every one. 

But each of us know when there are those neglected and there is a sense of, “Does MY life matter? Is anyone seeing?”

That is why, from time to time, we lift up a particular part of society to try and emphasize, YES… YOU matter!

This study really crushed me when it was released this week.

And let’s get THIS out of the way as well: It’s from the ACLU, which will automatically cause polarization. Conservatives will just dismiss it. Liberals will call it gospel. Everything has some hidden agenda, but this really goes to my point overall: when we SEE something, we label. Dear friends, it is my contention that we alone have the power to make that stop. 

The trouble is… we don’t want to.

So, conservatives will dismiss this study because of who put it out.

Liberals will treat it as gospel and really spin up harsh attitudes toward police.

This is my contention: BOTH knee jerk responses are wrong.

I have grown up conservative. Generally, I am not a fan of the ACLU. But there are times I need to carefully work through something and face some facts.

But we need to NOT hate police as well. Minneapolis is not doing well in their policing in general. While blacks see that in aces, I see it as well. Not just over harassment. I see it generally. I just simply think they could do a better job. Even as an average white, they are not a very responsive department.

We had a murder a block from my house a couple of years ago and we never received any information other than, “This was a crime committed by people who knew each other. The general public is not at risk.” That’s not good enough. I want updates. I want to know you went out and FOUND the offender. There was absolutely no communication.

Generally, in Minneapolis, I just think policing could be better. But I don’t hate police. One of my close friends is a police chief. He works hard. He does community policing. He himself is a volunteer Big Brother and has his officers follow his lead. He hires officers to represent the community and went through an arduous process to hire a Somali and Ethiopian when he had two vacancies. I don’t hate police. They work hard as well. There are good cops.

But there is still an attitude that persists in our community. And WHITES need to do some owning up. THIS article has some hard introspection as well.

There are times I’ve just not done… well… anything. And I’m sorry.

So, I won’t ignore a study because it’s done by the devil… I mean the ACLU.

And I won’t hate all cops.

I have worked to reach out in some ways to some community leaders. That hasn’t really gone extremely well, but that’s okay. I keep trying.

We still have work to do. Work that is GOOD. Work that is RIGHT.

Let us work together to BLESS… not curse.

Help us, O God.