Stand Your Ground Law

The very large headline on the front page of the Herald this morning read, “’Stand Your Ground’ Has Broad Support.”  Oh, too bad!  How depressing!  Who are these people? Why am I so different?  I feel like a stranger in a strange land; cut off, disconnected and out of touch.  How am I to relate to my brothers and sisters? How can I feel comfortable, safe and at home when I know that some minor altercation might get me or someone I care about shot and killed? What depth of fear, hate and frustration is at work here?

It reminds me of how I felt when I was in the Army stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1967.  I liked Germany: good food, great scenery. But one day, walking down the street, I saw a middle-aged guy (remember this is 1967, only 23 years after the Nazis), and it suddenly struck me that he could have been an SS trooper and even put some of my relatives in the gas chambers. I let that thought go, but after that, I was forever paranoid about German men in their 40’s and older. It didn’t completely ruin Germany for me, just gave it a new dimension and an uncomfortable edge.  Now, that feeling returns as I contemplate, “’Stand Your Ground’ Has Broad Support.”

Then, a few minutes later, doing my spiritual reading in the SOM magazine, Jesse Jennings, quotes Emma Curtis Hopkins saying, “All evil is done in the name of good,” and I am reminded that besides working to understand those that support this primitive law; besides working to have it repealed; I need to know that these people desire the same good I do – peace, joy, safety; and partake of the same spiritual essence that I do; that they, too, are part of the divine unfoldment; and I can’t hold the belief that some people don’t deserve good and expect to attain that good for myself.

Isn’t it interesting how things unfold and how balance is achieved?