The challenge for us all in a word: unity
We have found ourselves again to be in a situation that we have been in many times before. It is a situation that has caused men and women to be recognized throughout the history of our nation. Men and women that nobody knew paid a price for us to have what we have today for free.
When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the mantle of Civil Rights was not taken up to continue what he and others started. As a result, we find ourselves struggling again as a nation, which has filtered down to each state, city and community.
We have dishonored the very people who plowed the way for freedom, pushing against and breaking down the walls of injustice and racism. We have dishonored one another as people, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants and followers of all faiths.
By the price others have paid, we find ourselves nowhere near being able to join hands and sing in the words the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
We have dishonored ourselves. We believe that society owes us and yet we blame everything on others instead of looking at what's wrong with ourselves.
Did blacks that hung on a tree many times over die in vain? Young adults, both black and white, riding the freedom buses for freedom and equality, did they die in vain?
When do we break the strongholds of generational curses? Strongholds of slothfulness, pride, fear and distrust? How many more times will God allow the Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice situations to continue in order to get our attention? Respectfully, these four individuals should not be considered martyrs, but they did pay a price for all of us to get it right! Let their deaths not be in vain.
When do we stop blaming the spirit of injustice and racism, and start focusing on healing wounds and hearts? When do we reconcile with ourselves first and then with others? The price for the past has already been paid.
New laws and progressive initiatives do not change people's hearts. The president and other national leaders attempting to put laws in place may be good in theory, but it's the heart that has to change.
What has happened is very disappointing, but we shouldn't be surprised. Injustice and racism are still very strong and alive despite what our national leaders want us to believe. Our country has become more sophisticated in knowing how to work around injustice and racism. We would have been better prepared for what has transpired if there were any truth to what they want us to believe.
The situation in Ferguson was already simmering and had been for a long time, just as it is today in other communities and cities across the nation that have little or no plan of action for trust and reconciliation.
In the City of Elgin, Mayor Dave Kaptain and Chief of Police Jeff Swoboda are to be commended for their efforts in listening to community leaders who have a desire and commitment to work together in building relationships that will stand against injustice and racism.
To the men and women in blue who serve and protect us, thank you! Whether you agree or disagree with the outcome of the grand jury decisions, police officers are human too.
The dream that Martin Luther King Jr. had was for all of God's children - black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants and followers of all faiths - to be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are all free at last."
We have a responsibility not to let all that has happened be in vain but to let it change our hearts.
The Rev. Robert Whitt is senior pastor at Family Life Church in Elgin.