Happy Friday, y’all! “Yes, yes, y’all!” T.G.I.F.!!!
Somehow, the weekends seem like mini-vacations to me sometimes. Now, I still go to the gym … maybe teach or write something … usually able to find something “enlightening” for me … hang out downtown FTL at “The Club House” even!! But when I have some great things to do like I have this weekend, I feel rather grateful!!
First of all on Saturday afternoon from 1pm – 5pm, one of my sister Edna’s friend, Sandy Noble also from New York and a retired Broward County Schools employee, is having a “Black Holocaust” event at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center on Fort Lauderdale’s Sistrunk Blvd. It seems that there will be a variety of education and entertainment (dancing and drumming and spoken word) there. I plan to attend. Then on Sunday, there is a World Peace Meditation at Arts Park in Young’s Circle here in Hollywood, FL, from 6 – 7:30pm. It is sponsored by some very good friends from the Brahma Kumaris Meditation Group Hollywood including Roz Reich. I understand that Sister Veronica who leads BK Florida will be in attendance, if not at the Miami BK Center! Looking forward to it.
Now you all know how much I have advocated attempts … every and all … to “Stop the Violence” and seek to share my meagre knowledge and “takes” on issues and events. I just like to keep myself thinking about improving human relations and inviting any interested others to read with me … and chime in, too! These next two “stories” are horrific at minimum. Over a week ago on the weekend, a young man came to his mother’s home in Davie to find her murdered in the bathroom with multiple stab wounds. She is a member of the famous “Halliburton family” and was married to a renown professor. The entire families mourn their unnecessary loss, though the murderer, a 20 year old convict of multiple home invasion cases, was finally found hiding at his girlfriend’s home in Sunrise, FL. He is clearly being charged with murder.
The most horrific incident that I’ve heard of lately was just a few days ago in Belle, FL, Gilchrist County, just 30 miles from Gainesville, FL. A father of a young woman fatally shot his own daughter and her six … yes SIX … children … ranging in age from three (3) months to ten years of age! According to Gilchrist County Police, this is not the first time that they responded to a call at that home for some sort of domestic violence. This time, it was for murders! As the police closed in on the father, Don Charles Spirit, he turned the weapon on himself and committed suicide. I just don’t understand the ease with which some folks commit cold blooded murder, especially on innocent children!!!
As difficult as it may seem, we must each do our part to “Stop the Violence” … yes, even while living in a world seemingly full of violence.
Peace be with you!
John I. Cook
Educational Excellence 