JBL has posted an opinion piece to his Facebook page about the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, as well as the shooting in Dallas on Thursday night during a protest that saw five police officers killed. Sterling and Castile were both fatally shot during encounters with police. The former was captured on video, while the latter saw its immediate aftermath streamed on Facebook by Castile’s fiancee. They sparked protests around the country. It was at one of these protests in Dallas that at least one sniper fired at police officers who were monitoring the protest, killing five and injurying seven others.
JBL’s Facebook post is here; you can see the full content below.
The shootings in Dallas were despicable. Any killing of innocent people is despicable. My college room mate just retired from the Texas DPS after a distinguished career, he’s one of the finest men I know-he could have been killed because of an idiot with a gun, who claims to have a cause. For what, why could he have been killed? Because he is white, a police officer?-he is one of most unbiased kind people in the world who just wants to watch his son play baseball-these are the lives that are impacted or could be impacted. It’s time we think about what is going on, and stop it.
It’s time we realize
–All police are not bad because there are a tiny percentage that is.
—-All Muslims are not bad because there is a tiny percentage that is.
–All southern white Christians are not bad because there is a tiny percentage that is.
–All young black kids are not criminals because there is a tiny percentage that is.
–All immigrants are not murderers and rapist because there is a tiny percentage that is.
And, we can talk about, and condemn when necessary, that tiny percentage in any group while still having admiration for the group as a whole.
The hate and racism must stop. And, the only way to do that is to start with yourself and the world you can influence, if you don’t speak up-you have chosen a side, and you should be ashamed for not having a backbone.
Darkness cannot bedrive out darkness-it must be driven out by light—Dr. Martin Luther King.
I heard a debate about gay marriage in Bermuda from some local ‘politician’-saying that “what is next bestiality?” Are we Neanderthals to allow an idiot to say something like this? Show me a case of this ‘slippery slope’ (which doesn’t exist) and I’ll give you plenty of examples of genocide based on a mistaken view of a multiplicity of religions.
Do #BlackLivesMatter –ABSOLUTELY
Do #BlueLivesMatter –ABSOLUTELY
Do #AllLivesMatter –ABSOLUTELY.
Do I care if you support one cause over another? No, because they all need support because we are in this together.
The world is not falling apart, but we must stop the racist banter-and we can’t allow politicians who are too stupid to run on a serious platform to blame race when they fail or when they want to create a diversion from the fact they aren’t qualified for the job.
We must rise up, not down.
Who was first in North America? The Natives. Before them-who knows? Who was first in Bermuda? Marlin and wahoo, are we really arguing about this? We are all immigrants in these lands and it’s up to us to make it better or screw it up.
I vote to make it better. Watch this video by John Cena-how appropriate is this right now. Incredible job.
