Blogs by Pastor Boggs

The words “Black Lives Matter” regardless of what those words mean or how they have been interpreted by others, to me is the unheard cry of the disenfranchised, welfare-dependent, gang populated, drug selling, movie bootlegging, sock selling, street hustling demographics of Black Americans doing whatever they can or have been taught to do to make a dollar and come up out of a region in our world that has been riddled for generations now with neglect, addiction, violence and crime for an underground cash economy in what would otherwise be a completely empty and barren, poverty-stricken place with very few outs…

(breathe)

Now bringing with all of that the social profiling of innocent, good law-abiding people in these same regions, unfortunately making everyone in these regions (even those who are not gang-affiliated, gun-carrying dealers or needle carrying addicts) suspect and thus being treated with the same brute force, caution and disdain that the ones who have turned to a life of crime (either by being taught it or being born into it) are being treated.

That often being very violently by the police.

Listen, until you have been body-slammed on the hood of a cop car, with guns drawn and a jump out boy strangling you to make sure you’re not swallowing drugs (that you didn’t even have on you) in the hood somewhere… I believe it may be hard for people to understand or even empathize with what the cry really is of one very specific group of people (innocent or not) who are having to live this way, having to survive in it and live through this kind of struggle day after day, week after week and year after year.

And let me add if white guys from trailer courts all across America living in welfare-dependent regions in a similar plight amongst homemade kitchen meth labs had organized and started a “White Lives Matter” bringing into the light the issues that were destroying their poverty and drug stricken neighborhoods like a plague, I would have just as well sat up and said “Yes” there needs to be change here and something constructive and hopeful in the form of hope and healing must be organized and quickly done.

I just wouldn’t suggest a movement like this right now being pushed overtop our Black Brothers and Sisters cry whose now, more than ever, finally effectually being heard because to do so would appear (in my opinion) to only lessen the seriousness of Black Americans own plight and struggle and then redirect our attention to someone else’s and thus…as usual, inevitably once again, overall, people spinning the Black Communities very real issues off again into some nowhere land while throwing our hands up in the air saying “it’s all too much” and then sadly seeing absolutely nothing ever really being done to fund or help these sad situations abroad for anyone anywhere and of any color.

Why not, respect the statement and understand that “Black Lives Really Do Matter” and allow them to tell their stories and to articulate their angst, hardships, and struggles and then with a compassionate heart and willingness to learn and get understanding, why not work together discussing and seeking God and one another for real dialogue and answers that can bring real hope and change for these communities.

Why not start here and maybe then we can find ways to implement new systems that really do work and move them more abroad into other poverty-stricken regions as well.

Please keep in mind, I lived a decade as an addict on The West Side of Chicago, in and out of jails and Cook County Lockup, so these topics have a lot of my own personal experience, truth, and emotion attached to them.

I personally lived in more than one ghetto as an addict in the 90’s and so its impossible for me to not have the lense I have. I can’t unlive or unsee what I have been through, lived, and seen and I have tasted enough to care.

So for me, I’m sure my view may differ from others but it truly is from a place of personal experience and not just the ramblings of someone who really doesn’t know or understand.

– Stay in Love, Pastor Scott

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