Riot in Charlotte ~ the silent majority must speak

I watched the peaceful demonstration in Charlotte as it grew dark and the peaceful resident protestors left the park and went home. They were soon replaced by other protestors, some of them from out-of-town. Some of them professional rabble-rousers.

I watched in shock as they rushed police, vandalized stores, attacked representatives of the press. I have to say, I was shocked and became numb. That’s when I went to bed.

This morning I picked up my Bible and read for a while before turning on the TV. When I did the news, as most of America now knows, was not good. Mom and pop stores as well as corporate enterprises had been looted. A protestor had shot another protestor. The night before, I’d seen a souvenir shop being decimated. This morning, I found out it belonged to an Asian family.

As a nation, the law abiding citizens need to speak out. We need to make our voices heard. We need to cry out to God and to our elected officials that we want our streets to be safe for everyone, of every color, all the time. We will not tolerate rioting and looting.

We want our police departments to be better trained when dealing with potentially violent encounters. It’s not so much get the bad apples out, but train the ones in the basket. We want them to practice and drill for these situations. However, they are not social workers and can’t solve the problems of troubled communities. They are law enforcement officers, there to enforce the law. On that note, we want existing gun laws enforced and we want illegal weapons taken off the streets.

We want high crime communities to take responsibility for the breakdown of the family and breakdown of respect. We need to impress upon young people the best way to have a good and long life is to complete high school and not have a baby out of wedlock.

This is upon the silent majority and the silent majority can not afford to be silent anymore if we desire peace and safety on our streets and in our communities.