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A Line In The Sand
Remember when you were a kid and you got into a situation where you did not want to give the impression that you were afraid; but inside maybe you were.... just a little. The classic defense was to take the toe of your old worn out sneaker and drag an imaginary line in the dirt. Then, with the meanest look that you could muster up, you looked at the enemy with clinched fist and said those famous words, "I dare you to step across that line." Lord knows that we all hoped that the bully dejour would not take the dare. Sometimes it worked and you came out looking pretty good among the playground set. Other times, before the dust had settled from you drawing the line, your nemesis was standing right beside you, obviously across the line. What an uncomfortable position to be in! At this point you are left with two options, you can hunker down and fight like your best impersonation of Joe Frazier or you can do what most kids have done, and as adults, we still tend to do. You take another step back, draw another line in the sand, and say "Well, I bet you want cross this line." We all know how these stories end. If they crossed the first one, there is a great likelihood that they will cross the second one. The second line may delay the inevitable but the results will be the same.
This childish tactic is the same one that we, as a society, have taken regarding the basic response to everything that is wrong in our world today. Today, our idea of drawing the first and second line is known as second chances for criminals who do not deserve them, rehabilitation to those who cannot be rehabilitated, acceptance to those immoral values that we know are destructive, and forgiveness of about anything (especially if you are a celebrity) that a person might do. There is no longer anything in place that holds people on the other side of the line. We have simply lost our backbone when it comes to stepping up to the plate and fighting against those things that we know are wrong. We turn the other cheek, we walk away, or more often we apparently just do not care anymore.
Part of the blame must be placed on another line that we have put in place to protect us from some of the problems that we face today. In this case, I am speaking of the judicial line and the law enforcement line. We have judges who think that it is their job to make law rather than interpret them. We have police officers that have slandered their oath and are no better than the criminals that they are sworn to protect us from. We have prisons that turn out inmates who are worse than when they went in. However, this blame can also be shared with the general public. We have people who stand up and demand the death penalty when some of our more hideous crimes are committed, but we have trouble putting a jury together that actually has the guts to deliver the death sentence. They are all for it; they just would rather not be the one to do it. We have parents who stomp their feet and yell about the dangerous schools that we have, but threaten to sue the school system when it is their child who gets in trouble.
The line in the sand has now become a series of bleeding scratches across the face of society that comes down to one thing. We are no longer even accountable for ourselves. How can we be expected to demand responsibility from others? We have turned into a "blame everyone but me"
type of people who would rather just not get involved. How many times have you heard people say, " if it doesn't affect me personally, I would rather just stay out of it." Here is the bottom line. We had better get involved and we better get involved to the point that we send a clear message to those who are sitting back and laughing at our weaknesses. Until people know that they will be held accountable for their wrongful actions, we are no different than the scared little child on the playground, just hoping that the bully will walk away and not cross that line. We have had so much sand kicked in our eyes that we cannot even see what a dangerous time we find ourselves in.
We are at a point that we have drawn so many lines in the sand that we have backed ourselves all the way down the beach and to the water. There is no more room or any sand left that will allow us to draw just one more line. We have a decision to make. We can either stand up and fight or our country, as we know it, will step back into the water and slowly sink into a dark abyss.
For further information, visit www.voice4victims.com
If you are interested in having Mr. Hall speak at your next club or group meeting, please email contact information to:
SHall BadgeNotes@aol.com
021904
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