Troubled Child 

                   + Lethal Weapons 

                                                = Tragedy

Miss Ethel Laventhal, 4th grade, P.S. 101, Brooklyn, NY was my first teacher crush. I was in Class 4.3, next to the intellectual behavioral bottom of the four homogeneously arranged classes of that grade. It was done that way then with no concern for such obvious “labeling”. Expert in the matter of sizing up kids, Miss Laventhal recognized my misplacement, told my mother what needed to be worked on, praised my improvements and achievements. Next year saw me in Class 5.2 and the next in 6.1. I was oblivious of her professional intentions but the benefits were significant for my future. However, I did take in how her skills were applied to other children.

There have always been troubled children. There have always been those children in schools with baggage that rendered them noticeable to administrators, teachers and peers. Miss Laventhal spotted the one in her class. I knew he was trouble; nasty, pugnacious, uncooperative; the one to whom you gave wide berth if you were smart. But I saw how Miss Laventhal won him over. Even at the age of ten I marveled at the miracle. She made me want to have that kind of influence as a teacher. 

Later when I was teaching in public and parochial elementary schools and when I served as teacher librarian in a middle school Miss Laventhal’s radar became mine. I was not alone among my peers. We could all speak the names of the most needy children, those burdened with excessive emotional baggage, those with short fuses, those social misfits, those most insecure and therefore most likely to act out, and those whose futures we worried about. Statistically, there are just bound to be some emotionally disturbed or just plain needy children in every school. One such child was in my care in second grade. When she entered puberty her mother stabbed her to death in their home.

Troubled children have always meant possible tragedy but now an element has been added to the equation. The equation reads, “TROUBLED CHILDREN + LETHAL WEAPONS = TRAGEDY.” I believe that the weight of lethal weapons is what tips the scale in favor of tragedy. Certainly we can always improve our ability to notice troubled youngsters (not to to mention disturbed adults). We have to notice, to compensate for their losses, to help them achieve, to assist them in development of social skills, to remove them from harmful environments and more. Today, in spite of the rhetoric, we do not seem to have the political will to support such efforts adequately. But I believe, that even more importantly, we do not not have the political will to face the import and truth of the equation and act to remove military weapons from the open market, to stringently regulate all lethal firearms, to require by law (inspection necessary) locked domestic storage for all guns. It is only these measures which can remove lethal weapons from the equation which includes innocent toddlers, those with non-existent impulse control, youngsters and adults in momentary extremis of anger, frustration, depression or pain, and those clinically diagnosed with a mental disorder.

Simply put, I believe that even though it is definitely necessary to attend to the emotional needs of the troubled, some of that discussion merely distracts from the elephant in the room. Our current gun laws leave the equivalent of sticks of dynamite  readily at hand to be used by any one so inclined. Those so inclined include curious children, troubled youth, those angry or resentful adults eager for revenge, the abusive spouse, or those in a manic state.

Stringent background checks are not the answer. It is impossible to sift out all possible troubled souls and identify dynamics predictive of violence. It is no longer a matter of tiny steps to restrict gun purchases. We have arrived at the point of no return which which will shatter those clinging to Second Amendment rights established when it took almost a minute to load a rifle with just one shot. 

Gun possession must be severely limited in this country. We must acknowledge in an honest way that there simply is no other choice. 

And we must remember the miracles wrought by teachers in every age.

A Message for All 'Good Church People': The Truth About Racism

Mother Emmanuel A.M.E. Zion Church
Charleston, South Carolina
June, 2015

Say what you will about Facebook, but beyond the joy of connecting so easily with family and friends I have made the most interesting new associations, had my creativity inspired, and been informed by some really good thinking via this means of social networking.

 

Reverend Jarrett Banks,  pastor of  the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Farmville, North Carolina published the following essay on his blog earlier this week. Although he writes with a southern perspective each of his five points issues a very important challenge to churches north of the Mason-Dixon Line and across the spectrum of Christian denominations. With his permission I have posted it here because it is vital that we all consider the elements of racism that still poison our society (not to mention our hearts) as we continue to try to live as followers of Jesus Christ in an increasingly multi-racial and multi-cultural nation.

 

I cannot close without adding that while I agree with current efforts to remove the Confederate 'stars and bars' battle flag from public grounds in various states and municipalities, I worry that this may be serving as a proxy argument, a distraction, from the gun issue. With the President of the United States and victims of gun violence I ask, "When we will we wake up to the extreme need for greater gun control in our country?"

 

Charleston Wake-Up Call: Five Thoughts

by Reverend Jarrett Banks

I have heard many people call the massacre in Charleston a wake-up call for our country. I believe it is specifically a wake-up call for predominately white churches in our country. As a pastor of a predominately white church in the South, here are five thoughts that have been awakened in me:

1.    We must wake up to the reality that racism is not only a wound from our country’s past, but it is a deadly virus that still plagues us today. White preachers, including myself, have been often afraid to use the “r-word” from our pulpits for fear of “stirring things up,” as if we might reignite some fire that was put out in the 1960’s, or at least by 2008, when we elected our first black president. We must wake up and boldly preach against racism, in all of its current manifestations that are ablaze today: personal racism; systemic racism; and the subtle racism that is prevalent in the workplace, in the marketplace and even in the church, for Jesus could not have been more clear when he said: “Love your neighbor as yourself.

 2.    We must wake up to the reality that preaching and working against racism is not “being political,” but it is being “Christian.” When voting districts are re-drawn to limit poor black votes or when laws are created that make it more difficult for poor black people to vote, we must stand up and boldly proclaim the message of Jesus who came to announce “good news to the poor.”

 
3.    We must wake up to the reality that hatred in this country is being defended by church folks who are calling it “religious freedom.” In the United States of America, where we believe all people are created equally, religious freedom never means the freedom to discriminate. Slave-owners used the same religious-freedom arguments in the nineteenth century to support slavery. Today, we do not tolerate people who want to own slaves, nor should we tolerate anyone or respect the views if anyone who wants to discriminate.

4.    We must wake up to the reality that “the oppression of Christians” in this nation and the “war on Christmas” that we hear about every December has been manufactured by folks who loathe what makes our country great, that is our cultural, ethnic, religious and racial diversity. We need to also preach from our pulpits that it is this diversity that makes us look most like the portrait of heaven we find in the book of Revelation: “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (7:9). We must wake up to boldly voice our opposition to the purveyors of fear who are calling on people to bear even more arms “to take our country back.” Furthermore, we must wake up and tell the folks in our pews to please shut up, when they start reminiscing about going back to the good old days of the 1950’s when we had prayer in school. We need to be able to say: “You know, I have many of black friends, and I have never once heard them talk about wanting to go back to 1950.”

5.    We must wake up to the reality that the most segregated hours in our country occur on Sunday mornings. We must find ways to build bridges to bridge the gaps that we have created that prevent us from worshipping and serving together. To stand against racism, hatred and violence, to stand for social justice and equality for all, and to persuasively speak truth to power, we must do it side by side, hand in hand, as one body, one Church, serving one Lord.

 

Rev. Banks posts to his blog www.jarrettbanks.wordpress.com