About Me

My photo
I am a pastor and a clinical psychotherapist. My life's passion is defining healthiness from a human perspective and paralleling it to the holiness of God, divine perspective. Shifting perspectives creates a paradigm that is alongside of rather than over and against. The parakalein of God and the paradoxes of humanity are redefined. Humanity is all about winning and yet we are losing ground everywhere. Divinity is all about letting go of the desire to win and the fear of loss. The Divine embraces the world with loving care regardless of anything.

Search This Blog

In Racially tense times a good model

Posted by Don Paine


Our nation is again rocked with racial tension since George Zimmerman allegedly gunned down Treyvon Martin in Florida.  Last week George Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder.  Clearly Treyvon Martin did not deserve to be shot.  Clearly for justice to be done in this case all factors of both individuals need to be justly and honestly assessed and appropriate accountability and responsibility enforced.  Regardless of how the case goes the tension will continue.

On Saturday, April 14th, 2012 the Boston Globe on page A1,and A4 published the article copied below.  I leaped for joy as an act of colorless bravery was courageously placed on page one of the Globe.  Most of the time these good stories are reserved for somewhere inside the paper but this took prominence!

Saving a fellow pilot regardless of anything about that pilot except that he was a fellow countrymen or just a fellow human being in distress had these two brave soldiers tell a story that goes beyond color or creed.  A man by the name of Thomas risked his own life to attempt to save Jesse a kinsman navy pilot whose plane had crashed.  Thomas crashed his won plane in an attempt to save his kinsman.  He said, no heroism here is was "the only thing to do".  It was not an issue of right or wrong, nor an issue of color, nor an issue of creed, "it was the only thing to do".  How wonderful a legacy to follow.

Recently, my wife and I attended a play, "Black Pearl Sings" in which there was a line, "stupid comes in all colors".  Kindness and compassion comes in all colors, in all creeds, in all ethnic and social strata.  Being calmly compassionate and courageous is always and everywhere "the only thing to do".

Imagine if we all lived that way!

PS  Maybe the Navy Warship Should be called The Thomas-Jesse Ship?

0 comments:

Post a Comment