My family on my mother's side come from the west side of Fort Worth Texas in what is called the "Lake Como" Area. For as long as i can remember every year on the fourth of July, the west side would host their annual fourth of July Parade where the locals gathered together and celebrated the nations independence by parading the nicest cars down the street, while good food, fun and laughs filled the atmosphere in what usually was a family friendly event that came and went smoothly. The celebration would kick off around early morning/midday and you would typically see the older residents of the community who had lived in the area for decades attend the parade as well as young kids with their parents and grandparents. Daytime was one thing in Como, but as i grew older i began to see that the fourth of July at nighttime seemed to be an entirely different situation with different challenges.
The night brought death and heartache to families with shootings becoming so normalized that Facebook post would circulate warning people of going to any Como functions on the fourth of July. It unfortunately reminded me of the movie the PURGE in a way, if you're familiar with that film, everyone in the community that wanted to be safe, understood the best course of action to protect themselves from death, was to refrain from going outside at all due to murder and all crime essentially being legal for 24 hr.'s. That's the same feeling that flows throughout Fort Worth on the fourth. In the black community on a day that's supposed to be fun and family oriented, is instead filled with fear, and negative expectations….. but why? Sad as it is, one of the simplest explanations for why violence happens on this day in my opinion, is because of what the day brings…… the holiday brings a people together. Not just any people however, it brings together a people who’ve embraced a toxic culture or way of life! What shocked me to my core is when I found out that this problem of escalated violence on the fourth reached far outside of my city into other ghettos across the U.S
For example, there were 33 people left dead over the holiday weekend across the country. In Chicago this year (2024) there were 109 shootings with 19 fatalities!! There were shootings in Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia as well, historically it's one of our deadliest days of the year. My mind can’t even comprehend that level of evil, in my city this year we contributed to the death toll adding 5 people to the list when we had four shootings, surprisingly Como wasn’t the destination for death this year. I asked myself why? Why do we kill each other at all? and why in the world is acts of violence almost guaranteed to happen when we gather in the night on this holiday?
Poverty isn’t the answer to why violence runs rampant through the black community, we were impoverished certainly during slavery and also afterwards during reconstruction, but we didn’t show the level of hatred and disregard for each other during those eras that we do now, when we’re free and liberated to live as we choose. I won't allow anyone to blame slavery for the hatred we see in the black community today, neither will i entertain conversations that the white man or white supremacy is the answer for our lack of self-control! In my opinion There is something wrong with the culture as a whole! The culture that says wherever my enemies are at, I’m willing to risk my life and others to execute them even if it means children are around and could get hurt!
July 4th, 2024, for me will always be remembered as the horrible day that Two sisters, 15-month-old Wynter Thouston and 4-year-old Ivy Pierce were killed in a shooting that took place less 3 minutes from my home. They were at a car wash with their family enjoying the fireworks late night around 11;40 pm, when 26-year-old Kanard murphy after apparently getting into a dispute with his baby mother's family thought it best to open fire recklessly killing the two sisters as well as another man 42-year-old Terrell Winn who had nothing to do with the dispute in the first place.
This news saddened me of course but it angered me more than anything! The first thing i heard people complaining about is why the children were out that late at night, blaming the time for the evil that took place. Of course, i get it, i actually took my children out to see the fireworks but i had them back in bed before 10 Pm. So, from a parent's perspective, i get that, but let's say some Asians got together at the same exact time to watch the fireworks with their children, or Europeans, even Hispanics, would we expect negative deadly outcomes to result from their gatherings? i say absolutely not!
Of course, these communities aren't close to perfect, and we know that the sin curse has spread to all mankind, I'm just highlighting the brokenness in the black community because I'm apart of it and have gotten to see the scars of our depravity up close and personal. Going back to the culture problem, i believe this shooting happened in part because of an issue that's far too prevalent in our communities, "the baby mama drama" issue. as a people we're known for having children out of wedlock leading the nation in that category with over 70 percent of children in the black community growing up with only one parent. Our culture knows this is a problem, but it still promotes the very things that contribute to broken homes (sexual immorality, violence and godlessness)
i can hear you now asking "how in the world does the broken home problem explain the shooting that took place? here's how....... the society at large is the reflection of the home! when we see a disregard for life, lack of self-control and violence in a certain community we can pinpoint the home as the place that's producing those realities. What happened in this situation was 3 innocent people happened to be at the wrong place at the absolute wrong time. Baby mama drama between one man and one woman spilled out into the community and changed lives forever! Those two babies had no idea they were in the middle of a war because two adults didn't know how to settle their differences like adults. and I'm afraid that thousands of other kids are in a warzone on a daily basis, hanging in the balance between life and death because their parents embrace a toxic culture and environment that breeds destruction.
This isn't the first time that the brokenness in the black family has caused destruction to the community at large and unfortunately it won't be the last. Across the city in other neighborhoods there were also shootings at block parties and events that took lives and I'm sure if we dissected them separately, we'd see a family problem again.
Black people we need to love each other again!! we need to prize loving our women! we need to prize loving our children! we need to embrace the love of God and fall in love with his laws again! the most important one being to " Love God with all of our mind, soul and strength, and to love our Neighbor as ourselves!" (See Matthew 22:36-40)
I'm focused on doing my part in helping to transform and renew our culture! i want to change the music we listen to and create, i want to change the films we produce and consume, i desire to help us correct our views about God and his son Jesus Christ that we might live the abundant lives he created us to live. I get that i won't be able to change the black community alone, but hopefully my labor will produce lasting fruit that brings healing and restoration in the end! Prayerfully other's will be inspired to join me!
Rest in peace to 15-month-old Wynter Thouston and 4-year-old Ivy Pierce! I'm sorry you felt the sting of our brokenness as a people and didn't get to live out your days!
below is a song I wrote on the problem of murder and heartlessness that we're dealing with in our culture! give it a listen
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