You might feel that you no longer recognize people with whom you've worked, worshipped, or socialized.  Some of that's perfectly explainable.  Since the pandemic, people have had limited professional grooming available to them; a few may have put on a few pounds.  Not to be judgmental, but they don't look the same.  In those cases, you literally might not recognize people whom you've not seen for months. 

We write with troubled hearts about the wave of violence that has swept over Kenosha, Wisconsin, beginning with the shooting of Jacob Blake, Jr., on Sunday evening.  As is now so prevalent, we have video segments that capture moments and angles, but do not in themselves tell the full story.  One video segment shows Jacob Blake, a Black man, walking away from police to his car, where his 3 young children sat.  With a gut-wrenching ache, we witness a police officer shoot him in the back seven times. 

Photographs and videos also capture the unrelenting violence that followed:  looting and arson, destroying livelihoods essential to the community.  Cameras record police and National Guard under attack.  New footage shows a White vigilante, who intentionally came to the unrest from outside the state, murder two protesters in the street and then walk easily past approaching emergency responders, despite cries of witnesses to stop the shooter.

Cameras capture us at our worst, and they tell part of the story. 

Cameras also record us at our best.  They record the tearful plea of Mr. Blake's mother, Julia Jackson, urging us to examine our hearts, so that a nation divided over racism can heal.  She offered her prayers for...(READ MORE)