Early Saturday night – it was still daylight in Pittsburgh – a well-dressed and well-mannered crowd (mostly seniors) was enjoying the September air at a tony restaurant, its seating in it’ pleasant outdoor area full. Suddenly from around the corner came a Black Lives Matter mob, descending with fury on the innocent diners.
Immediately several miscreants jumped inside the patio’s fence. One screamed in his loudest roar: “F**k the white people that built this system!” which he then added “F**K 12.” (a reference to police, I am told.) A sweaty and surely black thug, wearing a too-small black tank top bearing the words, “Nazi Lives Matter!” walked right up to one white-haired older couple’s table and as they watched in silent awe, he then with a sinister glare proceeded to drink the remains of first one beer, then the rest of another, that the couple had been enjoying while listening to the soft music.
The protesters then smashed glasses, kicked over chairs, and spewed vulgar sexual and racial epithets before wandering down the street to prey on yet another crowd of predominately upscale white diners. There is a very graphic tape of the incident on the Internet and the universal outrage is condemning. One Twitter user wrote, “I’m so sick of this!!” while another wrote: “These terrorists have no place in America. They don’t care about Black lives; they only care about chaos.”
Similar incidents occurred Saturday in Rochester, N.Y., New York City, and in the Washington D.C. suburbs, among numerous other places, but the video of the Pittsburgh attack shows the handsome man, this as his beer is being highjacked, go from an expression of shock to one of visible sorrow. The scene is beyond anything you might imagine in the United States of America. Yet there was not one arrest, not one summons, not one cease-and-desist order … again this in today’s United States of America.
Believe it or not, several days ago I got a personal email from a person exactly like that man who was so grossly affronted in Pittsburgh on Saturday, this in the disheartening video I have now watched several times. For some reason, I connect the soul of the man in that Pennsylvania restaurant with what! … another who sent me an email with the heading, “Crossroads.”
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The email, entitled simply “Crossroads,” originated from a total stranger for what I know, and it read (in part): “Roy, this is an email test of sorts, I guess. I wish we had better topics to discuss, but, in this day and age, there is much concern over the state of affairs of our country.”
Then, following some wonderfully kind and personal remarks to me, he continued: “I am emailing you from our personal email… so, for a few reasons, you’ll know who I am. I’m a Chattanooga resident, and that, if I may ask to be anonymous on a piece I have thought much about and written earlier on that needs to be said, (my identity) doesn’t need to cost me all I have worked for and where I am currently.
“Politics and beliefs, if erred on wrong sides of sensitive, featherweight people, do seem to be absolutely destructive these days. I am not hateful nor a baiter of any type. I just want you to know where (the) source comes from if you choose to publish it in your column or understand (that there is) another concerned voice for our community. Thank you for your voice and endurance and your love of being a Chattanoogan, as I (am.)”
For starters, I am not going to reveal the author’s name, but hasten to inform both our newest writer and those who read this that, by my measure, he speaks for about 90 percent in our three-state community who may not venture into the public realm with their opinions but who feel every bit as strongly as our “Patriot.”
At the same time, I want him to get full credit for holding our personal feelings in the very palm of his hand. So, perhaps a hint is in order: If you are so fortunate to know a bless-ed lady in north Hamilton County that goes by the name of ‘Shay,’ suffice it to say our Patriot is the same one who holds her so devoutly in his heart. So there!
May I share his essay:
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“SOMEWHERE WE HAVE MISSED A TURN”
Roy- I don’t have much positive to ponder these days. I rise and still have air in my lungs and work to do, but this is on my mind… There are organizations out there stealing our joy, instilling chaos, and fear, trying to orchestrate a now overt takeover and expungement of the pursuit of life as “we the people” want for everyone.
This has caused me to ponder and think for quite a while to know what words to say, but I believe it needs to be said. I do believe in resolutions and reform of broken systems, but this is far from it…
We are at a crux in time … join us, join them, the Brigade, or simply give up and lay down your rights so that you too can be trampled by sinister motives that we didn’t think would be possible in our country today.
But here we are, in broad daylight where rioters can attempt and murder, loot and destroy with little to no consequence, hunt down law enforcement officers at their homes, or kneel on the neck of a baby to demonstrate your loyalty, execute a child for stepping on your lawn, or as a demonstration; burn down family businesses in our own communities, blow up Government buildings, or demonize property owners on their own doorstep for brandishing a weapon to defend themselves- and for what?
All to “convince” others to join a plight? Coercion and violence get met with nothing more but … coercion and violence. America should not be a war zone be a war zone! No one deserves to be assassinated due to skin color or political beliefs!!!
We’ve gone way beyond a tipping point and no one is wailing in the streets for justice to counter this brazen hatred and anarchy because we’ve been crippled by highly financed, pseudo-judicial, and political thuggery and labels. Yes, labels.
Has anyone realized that we all have been called racist (insert any ethnicity), a climate denier, non-conformist; left wing/right wing; aggressor/pacifist; phobic/reveler; and whatever anyone else desires to be offended by simply because of our very existence?
But worse now, you’re a threat to these factions if you try to defend you and yours and maintain any kind of balance in life along with the interesting, vague and unclear COVID-19 directives that are piled on top of us all. Stop promoting the panic, see how deep this runs and who is implicit in its design for later crisis and control.
Somewhere we missed a turn.
Somewhere the crowd got off at the wrong stop … but it’s not too late to turn around and find the way back home and rediscover what is good in life and find forgiveness and purpose. But if those who revel in injustice and hatred continue, remember this: Some gave all and all gave some … to befriend each other in this country outside of race, creed and beliefs in order to serve a higher calling and loyalty to each other under our Constitution.
The same Constitution that gives equal and guarded freedoms to every man woman and child here on our soil. A lot of “We, The People” served our Country under that Constitution together and formed unbreakable bonds- no matter what color. Ask any Vet…
When our God-given rights to defense and provide for ourselves is taken away- it doesn’t go unnoticed and should never go unchallenged. We love equally, mourn together, and serve with dignity to lock step arms and protect those we cherish.
I admonish everyone to value life and what is before you.
We can no longer be the mute “Silent Minorities or Majority.” This is the call to step out with haste, this is real. We are in the middle of what our father’s fathers have warned us of. The struggle of good and evil is right in front of us this very day and we must now make a choice. I am at peace with the Lord and so few faithful leaders, but see the warfare headed our way. I am obliged, but not in your debt, nor you to me and not in any man’s service.
I am a son, a father, a friend and neighbor too… but by the violence and hatred that has been unleashed and forced onto us, we have been made a combatant ... we should defend and be leery of what takes shape when the vacuum is created by a sudden vacancy of common sense and decency and when what binds us together as a great Nation is dumped for “some other” choice that isn’t… really a choice.
No greater friend, no worse enemy -- I will hold, and defend.
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My friend, I believe common sense and strong values will prevent our nation from tumbling into an abyss and any “civil war.” Further, I believe the horrid events we see unfolding in our Democratic edge of society will be brought to justice in the coming weeks and that the Democrats who have enabled the criminal element among us have, in fact, literally assured President Trump to a second term.
In my opinion, sound Americans regardless of political stripe will bind together against the terrorists who have been allowed to develop in our nation and that, as we root out those who have enabled, encouraged and financially supported terrorism, these louts will be harshly placed in our corrective facilities. Never underestimate the heart of any jury.
But, Mr. Patriot, if calamity should befall our nation in its recovery, save a place in your foxhole for me. I can promise you, sir, that like the rest of those within the sound of your voice, those who are silent, will hold. Yessir, we will hold, and defend.
royexum@aol.com