Justice and Mercy?

I’m weeping again this morning for the people of Baltimore, the people of Ferguson, the people of the whole country who see violent reactions to police violence and feel like they have to take one SIDE or the other. Both are right and both are wrong. It’s only through dialogue and putting aside centuries of hate, despair, and helplessness that we can hope to have these situations improve. Here are a few things I’ve been reading this morning.

Cops on Inside Streets http://www.estheremery.com/cops-streets/

Charm City Blues: Baltimore and trauma-informed community http://derricklweston.com/2015/04/28/charm-city-blues-baltimore-and-trauma-informed-community/

10 images of the Baltimore riots you won’t be seeing on TV http://mic.com/articles/116702/10-images-of-the-baltimore-riots-you-won-t-be-seeing-on-tv

The powers that be have done some incredibly stupid things:

1. stopping the bus service so that the kids couldn’t go home, even if they wanted to.
2. closing some of the streets so parents couldn’t get to their kids to take them home, even if they tried.
3. suspending school for today, because if schools were in session, any kids on the street could be picked up as truants and held for a while.

Come on, authorities, THINK instead of a knee-jerk reaction.

And join me in prayer for our broken world.