Abel Meeropol, a Jewish teacher, wrote a poem made famous in song by Billie Holiday in the late 1930s.  The song described trees that bore a strange fruit. However strange, this fruit was not an anomaly.  Fruit hung from these trees as bloodied, struggling, kicking, black men and boys who were lynched for the slightest offences, real or perceived. Now let’s fast forward to the 21^st century. We’ve evolved right?  We’ve become more civilized and don’t retreat to such tribal savagery?

From Then to Now

Yes, we’ve evolved. The recent Buffalo, Uvalde (and counting) shootings show the tree has morphed into local retail, public and municipal establishments of various kinds. The assortment of fruit has expanded from the exclusivity of pre- and post-emancipated blacks to include people of all sorts and sizes.  It includes people of all ethnicities with no age discrimination—from mere months to decades old. There are no gender or religious restrictions. To spell it out this new bloody crop of strange fruit has grown to include Caucasians, Asians, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, Christians, children of all colors– college, elementary, middle and high school students. A true but sad diversity.

Sad to say, we can send spaceships to the moon, fly around the world in hours in a supersonic jet, make strides in medicine and invent technologies to improve the quality of life, BUT in one of the greatest nations on earth we cannot, do not, squash the senseless slaughters that have become a blight on this nation.

Is Gun Control the Answer?

Not entirely.

“A 2019 study out of New York University’s School of Medicine found that mass shooting deaths involving assault weapons fell slightly in the decade of the federal assault weapon ban, and then rose dramatically in the decade that followed.” ¹ There are other studies that state the decline in mass shootings during the ban was not as dramatic as reported. 

So, there we have it. We can conclusively say that banning assault weapons that host large-capacity magazines may impact the number of mass shootings. It is clear that banning assault weapons contributes to a bigger solution but is not the stand-alone solution. The fact remains—guns don’t kill, people do.

Gun Violence Metric

The Root of the Matter

Why do people kill people? Until the root is addressed every fix that precedes is a band-aid fix. It may stick for a while but it is sure to peel away exposing the same putrefying sore more infected than before. The fix amounts to a check-in-the-box.

The Target

Extremist groups or their agents target minority ethnic groups or political and religious entities they feel threaten their cause. Locales may also be targeted to make a “statement”. Untargeted people caught up in the cross-fire are simply written off as collateral damage.

The Shooter

Seattle Times reports “We see two clusters when it comes to mass shooters: people in their 40s who commit workplace type shootings, and a very big cluster of young people — 18, 19, 20, 21 — who seem to get caught up in the social contagion of killing,” said Jillian Peterson, a criminal justice professor.² Over the last few years there has been a shift in age down to as young as 15.

Experts in the field of psychiatry agree that most gun violence is not committed by the mentally ill. The mentally ill are most likely to be a victim rather than a perpetrator.³

Extremist Covert Recruitment

Lax Parenting: A Contributing Factor

Most shooters had tumultuous upbringings. There was abuse in the homes which became the nucleus for rebellion, violence, and mental disorders. They were socially inept and found refuge in gaming and social media.

Children ages 2 to 11 spend about 25 hours/week watching television while those 12 to 17 spend about 21 hours/week. Children’s cartoon programming contains up to 20 violent acts for every hour shown. By the age of 18 children will have seen 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence.

Desensitization

For instance, in the article Media Violence, “media shows heroes justifiably using violence as a means to resolve conflict. The American Academy of Pediatrics website suggests that prolonged exposure to this type of violence increases acceptance of violence as a means of solving problems. The 1995 to 1997 AAP National Television Study showed that 61 percent of programming “portrayed interpersonal violence, much of it in an entertaining or glamorized manner.” Children are drawn to such programming when the violent act seems surreal and the lack of consequence attractive.”⁴

FCC Standard Dances Around Programming Solutions

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has supported potential solutions to address the violence in television programming since 2007⁵ but has no track record of an implementation plan.

Extremist Recruiters on Social Platforms

The Canadian Anti-Racism Network reports “they concentrate on communities undergoing stress from unemployment, immigration fears, farm foreclosures, and particularly young people who are not well integrated into the community. Recently, women, particularly bright young women, are being targeted as spokespersons for groups that want to project a softer public profile…a more mainstream image to the media.”⁶

Hartford Behavioral Health Network reports new research links video games to a recent rise in hate groups in the last few years.  Dr. Paul Weigle, associate medical director of ambulatory services says hate groups have seemingly infiltrated video games, often by paying for advertising on gaming sites or recruiting directly through online gaming chats. “Many games feature unmonitored private chats, where the gamers are paired up with teammates. Members of hate groups who are on these private chats will make racial slurs, see who responds positively, and send them links to Twitter accounts, propaganda videos on YouTube or hate group websites.” ⁷

Parents allow video games, television programming, movies, music and social media to impose their moral code on their children. By the time children reach young adulthood they have through marinated in ill will and are easily baited by extremist groups who at first offer empathy-scripted messages that eventually unveil itself as full-blown hate agendas. These young people want to belong so they readily get behind their new friends and their cause. They are groomed as kamikaze sleeper agents who act as lone wolves but are really an extension of a pack.    

Hate Repurposed

Some of these extreme groups have surfaced in the last decade and are a rebranded extension of the southern-based Ku Klux Klan organization that has been in existence for 160 years.  And I will say again, it is an organization, one that has obscurely weaved itself in high places and is alive and well. However, The Black Panthers, a black militant group, organized almost 100 years after the Ku Klux Klan was crushed into oblivion in short order. This expressly speaks to the high ranks extremist ideology have penetrated.

Why are there still groups around that produce sleeper agents that murder people like fish in a barrel? Why are they allowed to thrive under our noses?  Organized hatred goes deeper than the organization. It is a spirit. It is more intricate and layered than I can speak to. I don’t need to know all the layers; I see the smear it’s leaving on this country.

What Should Be Done?

The solution is radically simple.  

America needs to get on her knees and PRAY!

You wonder why the fixes haven’t stuck? The sin of the people evolves into the sin of the nation.

We can do gun control, train parents to be better parents, modify television programming, video games and the like, but we will still fall short because this country has fallen away from God.

On our own soil we’ve been hit with jihadists on September 11, 2001; we’ve lost many Americans to war and to the pandemic these last two plus years.  Domestic terrorism allows our enemies to sit back and watch while America annihilates herself!

God in America

Look at the numbers. In 2011, a study was conducted on American reading the Bible. They found 67 percent of adults surveyed wished they applied the Bible more to their lifestyle while that number has fallen to 56 percent in 2019. They found readership varied across demographics with Millennials in the study group most likely to have never read the Bible to those over 70 years old being the most frequent readers.⁸

As lame as some might think, there is a correlation between our gradual slide from embracing the mannerisms of God to where we are today.

America needs to reinstate God in Country. In 1864 we inked “In God We Trust “on our coins and later on our currency. As a country we need to return to those roots.

Come Together

Instead of the roots being systematic lynching of Americans of all persuasions, young and old, let it be the coming together of all persuasions in prayer for our country. It is once again I ask you to please join me as I pray for,

• Revival in churches that will sweep across the nation. The Welch Revival of 1904 affected the nation of Wales. The Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles began in 1906 and lasted 10 years. You may say the world is going to hell in a handbasket anyway so why pray. Pray, because if we can turn things around for a few or have save lives for the next fifty years it is worth it. We pray for far less.
• Church leaders to come together and intercede as ONE for this nation and to actively work to promote and institutionalize peaceful co-existence.
• God to intervene in American government to bring to the forefront those leaders that will dig deep to garner economic, societal and judicial solutions that will greatly reduce violent upheavals.
• Those who are impacted by hatred do not retaliate hatred.
• Godly wisdom for parents in raising their children.
• Government agencies to apply more stringent restrictions on the content of television programming, movies, and videos.

The only solution is to take Jesus Christ out of cold storage. The absence of Christ in our lives have led to where we are today. As Christians we cannot bury our heads in the sand like it doesn’t matter. We dare not allow these atrocities to become something we accept and move on. You’ll stomach it until it is your mother, your wife, your husband or your child that’s lost.

Will we be aa unrepentant Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis chapters 18-19)

or will we be a repentant Nineveh (Jonah chapter 3)?

Will we hold on to our right to live any way we chose at the expense of others?

or

Will we acknowledge our short-comings and repent before God?

America, You Choose

 

Waymaker, Miracle Worker

References

¹https://www.wral.com/fact-check-biden-says-mass-shooting-deaths-tripled-after-assault-weapons-ban-ended/20301855/stricted.

²https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/a-disturbing-new-pattern-in-americas-mass-shootings-young-assailants/

³https://hartfordhealthcare.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleid=29454

Psychiatry (Edgmont). 2008 May; 5(5): 34–48.

⁴https://www.hellomotherhood.com/how-watching-violence-on-tv-affects-kids-5671503.html

⁵https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-report-violent-television-programming-and-its-impact 402242

⁶https://stopracism.ca/content/introduction

⁷https://hartfordhealthcare.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleid=29454

⁸https://www.statista.com/statistics/299981/time-spent-reading-the-bible-usa/