It Ain't That Serious

...and the record books crack open once again as the City of Richmond continues to push towards experiencing a '96 throwback.  So while we crowded VCUs campus, draped with our hooded sweatshirts, our bags of Skittles, and cool, crisp iced tea; it appears that the hoodlums 'round here called a conference and decided to have a wonderful April.  I think the slogan for their meeting was While the Feelings Are Away, Let the Thugs Play.  And play they did...to the tune of 31 shootings and 5 murders.  This doesn't include a week with 5 killings in Chesterfield and a police officer shooting a man who was "threatening" in Henrico County.  Nope, none of that made our news feeds because we Cap City folk are used to it. And to be truthful, for most of us it ain't that serious.

I'm sure the family of 17 year-old Keona Johnson thinks it's pretty serious though.  But unfortunately for them, a North Side kid getting blasted at a dice game by black men warrants only a candlelight vigil, if that.  I'm guessing because she was in an area where illegal gambling was taking place, it was just a natural string of events.  Yet it's somewhat interesting that during the emotional tirade over a murdered young man hundreds of miles away, terms like "that's still a life" and "that's a mother who lost a child" and the ever more popular "the murder of our children has to stop" were tossed around like Frisbees.  Ms. Johnson, however, garnered the attention of a couple local news reports, and then it was on to the next one.

By no means am I suggesting that ignorance of foreign issues help solve domestic ones, but it does puzzle me how many social, political, religious, and Christian groups frequently overstep extremely serious local concerns to over-fund and over-protest non-local ones.  Like churches in South Richmond who adopt African children but have no mission trip to Hillside...it seems a tad illogical to me.  I've spoken before about how we Richmonders don't validate a concern until it shows up on our cable networks, so maybe that's a factor in this.  Possibly it could be the attention (and money) one generates by helping those abroad as opposed to reaching out to neighbors.  Or it could be organizations hide behind the "the world is our neighbor" phrase because it's much easier to send a pamphlet and a few bucks a month than to walk down Accommodation Street preaching Christ.  Well, Peter was a little scared at first, so don't feel bad (Luke 22:56-57).

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those in his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel (1 Timothy 5:8).

Peace