I woke up this morning to the horrible news of a gunfight at Raines High School. Presently one young man is dead and two are wounded. It occurred on property shortly after Raines High School Friday night football game ended.
The only incident at the stadium prior to that had been a group of “ladies” who had participated in a fighting match.
I watched the TV report and heard the School Board Superintendent speak and give the facts as she knew them at the time. The head of the Duval County Schools Police Department spoke as well and reiterated over and over again that they had done their job by securing the stadium and had used wands on all attendees. There were 8 police officers at the game and they felt very prepared for any incidents that might occur. He stated this incident occurred after the game and outside the perimeter of their responsibility.
And then one of the school board members had her turn. She immediately went into the statement that this was a community issue and why had these children been in possession of weapons.
I knew it would turn to that before it turned to that. That’s what they always do. They — meaning the adults who are in charge — want to blame a gun instead of the real issue facing our society as a whole – not just here in Jacksonville.
The real issue is this: The absence of LOVE
I’ve watched it all happen.
When I was in third grade, I watched as my teacher told us one morning we could no longer pray in school. She was no longer able to read a bible story to us and we were no longer going to pray for our safety at school and for all of us to get along throughout the day. That was always her prayer for us. She said we could have a moment of silence and we could say whatever we wanted to say in our heads but not out loud. I felt fear with her words because I felt a sense of loss and security and wondered what the adults were so afraid of. Why couldn’t we pray? And now as I look back on that day after the shootings last night, I realize that prayer was used as a tool against us by the screaming lunatics of the day.
When I was a teenager, the NOW movement came on the scene and I was belittled into believing the lie that NOW was about giving rights to women. It was a lie – it was about reducing the specialness about who I was as a woman. I was no longer special. I was a tool used by mean spirited women who hated men and wanted them to pay for any hurts they had caused.
And then in the same time in my life, the Supreme Court ruled that innocent babies could be murdered simply because they were not wanted. It all sounded good. We were all going to be in control of our bodies but that control only started at the time of conception and not before. So babies became our enemies and were a tool used by hateful people to create more hate in the world. Who and why would we hate babies?
And let us not forget the narrative that was also pushed — you don’t need to marry someone, just shack up with them instead. The narrative used was “Free Love.” Yet, my lady friends, it was another lie and we were used to push the narrative again. Instead of being special, we were once again a tool. We gave our bodies freely to men who could care less about your souls. That free love created more hate inside women and men lost all respect for the specialness of a woman.
Men began to use women for sex and not for love. Women gave it to them and then either aborted their babies or kept them. Some of those who kept them raised them alone and some with bitterness because they knew they had been used. They just couldn’t put their finger on it but their hearts were hurt and their souls were cold. Who would love them? Who would protect them? There was no man around to do that.
Children were used as tools to get more money from their boyfriends or the state. Family units had missing parents. Children were left to raise themselves or other family members stepped in to try to help. Drugs became the tool used to press down inside of us the lack of love we so yearned for.
People started to blame the government, the police and any other agency they could think of instead of blaming themselves for their own actions. No one wanted to take responsibility and finger pointing became the norm. Instead of fixing the real issue – we kept pointing at other reasons for all this hate.
And the real reason — the lack of love. They will say — Nope that can’t be it.
If we decide to talk about that LOVE thing – we are quickly shut down and told we don’t know what we are talking about. And why do they do that? Because they need to blame the drugs or the gun or the police or the man. That’s their narrative and they have been using it for years! It’s worked too. See how much hate has filled our city?
And no matter what we do now – eliminate all the drugs in the world and all the guns – the truth is this:
We will still be people who are searching for LOVE.
They – the same ones who said babies don’t matter, be free with your bodies, don’t believe in God — will keep at it until HATE trumps LOVE again and again. They are never satisfied. They want it all. They want our souls. They want us to hate more than ever. They want us divided. They want us angry. They want us fighting. They want us killing each other.
They LOVE all this HATE because they know if we are busy hating, they can control us.
We deserve a better world than this one we live in today, my friends. All those bad decisions from years ago are showing up in our homes, our community, our schools and our streets.
I pray we will all come to our senses and realize we have been used. Don’t let the narrative of an innate object become the reason for all this crime and killing. It’s like putting a band aid on a broken heart. It will not fix it. Only heart surgery will.
It’s our hearts, friends. They need healing. They need love.
What shall we do about that? What can you do about that? What can our community do about that?
We pray – YES we can pray – that somehow this tragedy will be the catalyst to LOVE reigning in our streets, our homes and in Jacksonville again.
They will never let a tragedy go to waste and will use this time to push their narrative that guns are the problem. Isn’t it about time for us to use tragedies for spreading the narrative of LOVE?
My heart hurts this morning and I’m hoping for some LOVE in my community once again. I pray for comfort for the families who are grieving today. I pray someone at Raines will stand up and become a beacon of LOVE in their school and will lead their friends to a better way – the way of LOVE.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://eyeonjacksonville.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Billie-Tucker-1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Billie Tucker has worked in the CEO world for more than 30 years and was the Chief Operating Officer of Vistage Florida, a think tank for CEOs. She started her own consulting practice, CEO Service Bureau, in 2001 and earned a reputation for her keen understanding of the motivations, challenges and goals of people and became a life-long student and teacher of leadership principles. She craved anything leadership related and enjoyed being around the world of entrepreneurial CEOs. She watched as they made decisions; pondered how they would make payroll when cash flow was tight; and appreciated how they created career opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people. Because of her experiences, she has emerged as a key resource for the media and others who want to understand important insights about executives, management teams and board dynamics. In 2008, Billie became discouraged as she watched some of her clients struggle with the political economic impacts on their businesses. The same CEOs who mortgaged their home and charged up their credit cards to make ends meet to build a business and keep others working, now watched as their government bailed out the big banks who had mismanaged their resources. She cringed as most of her clients laid off employees for the first time and she vowed she would help them… somehow…someway. That somehow…someway showed up in the Tea Party Movement in America. She formed one of the largest tea party group’s in America (more than 9,000 members strong) and helped bring attention to America’s debt problem, out of control spending, over taxation and regulation strangulation on companies. With her background in working with leaders and her influence in the political and leadership world, Billie has continued her dream to help CEOs navigate these troubling waters that permeate the world of capitalism in America. She has been an active participant in the media as a guest on CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, Bott Family Network Radio and co-hosts a political/financial radio show in the Northeast Florida market entitled, Smart Money. She was the first speaker at the House of Representatives Tea Party Caucus inaugural event and was invited by Heritage Foundation to speak at their prestigious annual Heritage Resource Bank, and on their National Security Panel live broadcasts. She spoke at the Congressional Republican House Retreat in Pennsylvania in 2012. She was also the co-host and co-producer of the CNN Tea Party Express Debate in the 2012 Presidential Election. She is a firm believer that America needs more entrepreneurs and more opportunities for people to use their God-given talents and passions to better themselves, their communities and America. Her favorite quote has become her mission to help CEOs succeed: “Vision without execution is hallucination.” – Thomas Edison[/author_info] [/author]
