Lance

IM Lance. And this is my HOME. I live MY LIFE day by day.It is not the concern of any ONE race. The victims of the violence are BLACK and WHITE, RICH and POOR, YOUNG and OLD, They are, most important of all, HUMAN beings whom other human beings LOVED and NEEDED. NO ONE - no matter where he LIVES or what he DOES - can be certain who will suffer from some SENSELESS act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours. Whenever any American's life is TAKEN by another American UNNECESSARILY - whether it is done in the name of the LAW or in the DEFIANCE of the law, by ONE man or a GANG, in cold blood or in PASSION, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we TEAR at the fabric of the LIFE which another man has PAINFULLY and clumsily woven for himself and his CHILDREN, the whole nation is DEGRADED. Too often we honor SWAGGER and bluster and wielders of force; too often we EXCUSE those who are willing to build their own lives on the SHATTERED dreams of others Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence BREEDS VIOLENCE repression BRINGS retaliation, and only a CLEANSING of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul. This is the BREAKING of a man's spirit by DENYING him the chance to stand as a FATHER and as a MAN among other men. And this too afflicts us all. Yet we know what we must do. It is to ACHIEVE true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own MIDST and in our own HEARTS that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the TERRIBLE truths of our EXISTENCE. We must admit the vanity of our FALSE distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of OTHERS. We must admit in OURSELVES that our own children's FUTURE cannot be built on the MISFORTUNES of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by HATRED or REVENGE.