David Dorn, a retired St. Louis police captain, was shot and killed the other night while trying to protect a local store from looters on Martin Luther King Drive. David had retired from the St. Louis Police Department in 2007 after 38 years on the job. He rose from rookie patrol officer in 1969 to captain. When he retired, he then became police chief in […]
Recently, another American man was killed, this time gunned down while standing outside the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, California. Dave Patrick Underwood isn’t a household name. His death didn’t make nearly as many headlines. But his life mattered, too, and his murder should displease every American. Underwood was a law enforcement officer in the Federal Protective Service. He and a colleague were […]
In August, 1968, the country was still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. four months earlier, and the race riots that followed on its heels. Nightly news showed burning cities, radicals and reactionaries snarling at each other across the cultural divide. But a brand new children’s show out of Pittsburgh, which had gone national the previous year, took a different approach. Fred […]
Many have learned about George Floyd’s tragic death by extreme police force in Minneapolis. The feelings of anger, sadness, and injustice are real — but how should we publicly respond? The world is watching Minnesota right now. We need to answer by saying and demonstrating peacefully that we will seek changes that address the inequities and discrimination that led to this incident and the many […]
Previous: Some More Thoughts About Civil Disobedience Previous: Some Thoughts about Civil Disobedience After much prayer I started a simple petition online at: https://www.change.org/p/governor-of-minnesota-tim-walz-free-exercise-of-religion-and-public-policy The goal is simple. I believe each local church should have the right and freedom to choose when to reopen safely. Many small churches can reopen safely. It is time for state officials to work with local communities to reopen our […]
Some fun with a familiar story about a day to come. And a nod to Dr. Seuss Now, the Masked-Face SneetchesHad faces with MasksThat covered their mouths and their nose.The Plain-Face SneetchesHad none upon thars. Those Masks weren’t so big. They were really so smallYou might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.But, because they had Masks, all the Masked-Face SneetchesWould brag, “We’re the […]
Previous: Some Thoughts about Civil Disobedience One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws as I did the other day. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just […]