{"id":3910,"date":"2014-11-20T06:14:14","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T11:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3910"},"modified":"2014-11-20T06:14:14","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T11:14:14","slug":"what-we-dont-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3910","title":{"rendered":"what we don’t know"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"iceberg\"<\/a>The wise man is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm. He is steady. He is not afraid.<\/p>\n

We continue to watch what\u2019s happening in Ferguson, Missouri.<\/p>\n

In anticipation of the grand jury\u2019s decision — whether or not to indict the police officer who shot the unarmed teen — so many have their minds made up… so many who haven\u2019t been privy to all the facts… who haven\u2019t sat in on the grand jury testimony… who weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the bottom line, is it not? \u00a0So many of us have made up our minds in regard to what we want to believe, even though we weren\u2019t there. And because we weren\u2019t there, there could be aspects of the situation, we don\u2019t know. If there\u2019s something we don\u2019t know, then we could be wrong.<\/p>\n

Where else does this happen?<\/p>\n

Where else do we disregard prudence in the name of passion?<\/p>\n

Where must we\u00a0humbly acknowledge it\u2019s possible we don\u2019t have all the facts?<\/p>\n

And where exist persons poised to benefit personally or professionally who provoke us to impatience — as opposed, yes, to what\u2019s harder… to waiting…. being still… humility… and that coveted respect.<\/p>\n

That does not\u00a0delegitimize the time for a peaceful protest — albeit I said \u201cpeaceful.\u201d There is no place for the looting or destruction that many seem self-justified in engaging in when an unfortunate civil situation occurs. But too many who call for protest are ok with the omission of the peaceful. Too many lead poorly. Too many incite. And too many forget that even in leadership, there may be something they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

In Ferguson, local gun dealers report significantly increased sales, especially for first time buyers. The Governor has called in the National Guard, and he has already declared a state of emergency — all in anticipation<\/em> of the decision.<\/p>\n

On August 9th, Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18 year old, who was unarmed. According to leaked accounts, the incident occurred at close range, in or near Wilson\u2019s car; it lasted less than 90 seconds; Brown died; Wilson had some bodily injuries. Wilson is white; Brown was black.<\/p>\n

Some have made up their minds one way or the other because one was an officer and one was not. Some have made up their minds one way or the other because one was armed and one was not.\u00a0Some still, have made up their minds one way or the other because one was white and one was not.<\/p>\n

None of those aspects change the fact that we weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

The wise man is not afraid of bad news. He not afraid of news nor perspective he seemingly disagrees with. The wise man recognizes there are things this side of heaven he will never know for certain, regardless of how he feels.<\/p>\n

Oh, for more wisdom in this world.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wise man is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm. He is steady. He is not afraid. We continue to watch what\u2019s happening in Ferguson, Missouri. In anticipation of the grand jury\u2019s decision — whether or not to indict the police officer who shot the unarmed teen — so many have their … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “what we don’t know”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[476],"class_list":["post-3910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-ferguson-grand-jury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3910"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3916,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}