Off The Editor’s Desk – 12-1-2021
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
Rittenhouse verdict, not accepted by leaders!
On November 19th, a jury sitting in Kenosha found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of homicide, attempted homicide, and reckless endangerment following a two-week trial.
The then 17-year-old Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and injured a third during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August of 2020. The protest was against police brutality and racism after police shot Jacob Black, leaving him paralyzed. Rittenhouse claimed self-defense and apparently that is what the jury accepted.
Our legal system worked and I am not going to chastise the jury. They spent two weeks listening to the evidence presented and weighted what was presented to them and rendered a verdict. I was not in the courtroom during the trail, so I am accepting the verdict of the jury. That is how our system of justice works.
But, many are not accepting the verdict, many of those are church leaders, and they apparently wanted Rittenhouse convicted and I believe that some of them had Rittenhouse guilty even before the jury was selected. Even President Biden was convinced that Rittenhouse was guilty and stated that before the trail started.
“We don’t have to wonder what would happen if Kyle Rittenhouse was black, we have the lives of John Crawford and Tamir Rice.” Christian author Dante’ Stewart tweeted before the verdict was reached.
Even as far away as Washington State comes a piece from Bishop Rickel of The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia who wrote, “I was saddened to learn of the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. The incident brought to the surface, many of the issues that our country wrestles with, and all too often attempts to ignore, around racial justice, white vigilantism, and gun violence. A young white man brazenly carrying an automatic weapon through city streets was virtually ignored by law enforcement. Had it been a Black man, I do believe the results would be drastically different.”
A piece written by Bruce Harrison for Scripps, Media about Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha which is an integrated church, “just being together in worship and prayer is part of the healing process after the trial divided people along lines of politics and race.”
“We are truly a broken people,” said Rev. Jonathan Barker of Grace Lutheran Church.
I must pat our Governor Evers on the back for traveling to Kenosha and attending church at Grace a week ago. Evers said, “I wanted to be able to heal with the Kenosha community. The impact of the last couple of days has been extraordinarily difficult on everyone.”
At our church on November 21 a message about the Rittenhouse verdict was read to the church members from the Bishop of the Wisconsin United Methodist Church, Hee-Sou-Jung. That message in my mind was more of a political statement than one that could have led us to unity, and forgiveness. Everytime something bad happens, and the race issue comes up, as an old white guy, I feel the blame for something that I have no control over.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton