My wife and I just returned from a visit to Montana where we along with several other folks were hosted by my good friends Florida State University President Emeritus T.K. Wetherell and his gracious wife Ginger. Interestingly one of the other couples who were guests happened to be Bernie Machen, current President of the University of Florida and his wife Chris.
Hmmm . . . Two leaders of the biggest rivalry in college football and other arenas were breaking bread together as friends??? This should be very interesting . . .
It turns out everyone had a great time and aside from a few good natured jokes about the rivalry, one would have never known one existed. One day we went white water rafting down the Swan River. It was still a little swift from the snow melt, but was not raging. I was in a one person kayak, Bernie and his wife were in a two person kayak, T.K. and several others were in a rubber raft.
The kayaks were much faster than the rubber raft and those of us in kayaks would get far ahead of the slower raft and then wait for them to catch up. As I approached a stretch of white water I paddled to the shore through the swift water and hung on to a dead tree while I waited for the raft to catch up. I happened to look behind me and noticed that Bernie and his wife were no longer in their kayak and were standing right in the middle of the very fast moving white water and struggling with their kayak trying to get to the river’s edge. They had tried to paddle to the side of the river to wait as I had done, but when their kayak got broadside in the swift river it capsized and dumped them into the icy water.
OMG!
I paddled furiously to the other side of the river to try and help them, but by the time I got there, they had successfully managed to reach the river’s edge and drag the half sunken kayak to the side and were turning it upside down to empty water of out of it.
Whew!
They had me worried there for a moment. About that time T.K. and crew showed up and we continued on down the river through the rapids. Bernie and his wife were drenched but still in high spirits.
As we continued we approached the most rapid part of the trip and were heading directly towards a bridge where the water was very fast moving and rocks protruded out of the river. I was surveying the situation and happened to glance to my right and I saw Bernie’s wife’s head just barely above the water bobbing along next to their sunken kayak. Bernie was trying to keep his balance and walk through the swift current and both were hanging on to the kayak as it swiftly moved down the river towards the bridge.
Yikes!
I paddled furiously as did T.K. and the folks in the raft. I was further downstream and trying to paddle upstream to reach them. T.K.’s crew reached the shoreline and he jumped out of his raft and quickly waded upstream along the bank and assisted them with turning their kayak right side up again and thus emptying all of the water out of it. (The problem was that they had not emptied enough water the first time it capsized, and when they got in the swift water it was sitting so low that water came over the side and it promptly sank.)
This was much more serious than the last time, because if they had reached the treacherous bridge just a couple of hundred yards further downstream, bones could have been broken or worse, but aside from some bruised egos and soaking wet bodies all turned out well.
Hmmm…I was thinking about what might happen when word got out in Tallahassee, (home of the “Noles”) that their former President T.K. Wetherell had helped rescue their hated rival, “Gator’s” President Bernie Machen. That would not be good. Some of those diehard fans would probably have opted to let Bernie and his wife go on down the river until it emptied into the Flathead Lake or maybe somewhere in Idaho or Utah . . .
That of course is an exaggeration, but isn’t it weird how people hate each other, (including people that they don’t even know these days). I was talking to some gang members in prison this weekend and they were telling me how much they hated their rival gangs. The only difference between them and their despised rivals that I could determine was the locale of their neighborhoods. They and their rival gang members were raised in similar dire circumstance, abject poverty, drug addicted, alcoholic parents and most were third or fourth generation gang members. Interestingly many had not ventured more than a few blocks in any direction from their home neighborhoods. With so much in common why do they hate each other?
All that they share is hatred for each other! Anyone who is not one of their “homies” and from their neighborhood is essentially an enemy. They don’t know why . . .
So it is today all over the country with blacks and others raging in the street about George Zimmerman being found not guilty. I read this morning where a white man said he was jogging alongside of a road when three black men abducted and beat him and claimed the alleged attack was in retaliation for George Zimmerman’s acquittal, “One of them asked, ‘Do you know who Trayvon Martin was? Well this is for him’”. At that point, the men in the vehicle beat him so badly that they put him in the hospital.
How crazy is that? They didn’t even know that man and beat him because he’s white???? Zimmerman isn’t white; he’s Hispanic, but some in the media have dubbed him “White Hispanic” in order to turn it into a white/black race issue.
Much of this type of hate is being driven like a fast moving forest fire by a ratings-driven media that thrives on racism. Sadly the flames were also fanned by reckless comments initially made by our very first African American President and Attorney General.
When this matter was first investigated, the police opted not to arrest Zimmerman because of lack of evidence, but the media and politicians demanded it. Soon he was convicted by the press and he became despised by people all over this country. As expected when the evidence was clearly and objectively presented, (and televised), the jury found him innocent. One juror stated last night that she had no doubt that Zimmerman feared for his life as his head was being banged on the concrete and his face was being smashed as he was being beaten by Trayvon and that she was thoroughly convinced that the shooting was in self-defense.
Sigh . . . It was unfortunate and should never have happened. A 17 year old boy losing his life is tragedy enough without further hate and violence. But people want someone to blame.
Okay so blame satan. He introduced sin into the world. We’re all human beings, created and loved by God. The sin of hate began with Cain and Abel and ended in the very first murder and many more victims have fallen to hate since that fateful day.
I’ve visited with numerous gang members who are serving time for murder today because of hate for people they don’t even know. It’s crazy! Even they cannot explain why they do it.
It’s a shame that folks can’t put aside their differences and just break bread together. It is a sad commentary on our society and its current fallen state. It is evil pure and simple. It’s sad and disgusting and an indication that these people need God in their lives.
If you hate or are a racist think about it . . .
1 John 4:20
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.