Straight Out of the Movies

Yesterday, there was a scene straight out of the movies in West Memphis. Many of you may have seen it on the national news. I saw it this morning on Fox News' Fox and Friends show (although I knew about it yesterday shortly after it happened). A car bomb exploded almost killing a doctor who is also the chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board. The last I heard (at least that sounds plausible) is that someone planted the devise under or around the hood of the car and did something that lured him to the front of the car and then exploded the devise. It really was a scene straight out of a movie where someone was walking to his car only to have it explode.

I have several friends in the Marion and West Memphis area who know the him and his family. Last I heard he had lost his left eye and they were hoping to save the right one. I along with many in the area have been praying for the doctor and his family. I also pray they find the person who did this!

News on Jeremy

I apologize for it being a couple of days since I have updated the information on Jeremy.

On Friday, Jeremy had surgery to remove a piece of his skull. The pressure in his head had started to climb again so they needed to make more room for his brain to be able to swell and still allow the pressure in his head to remain lower. It was determined in that surgery on Friday that Jeremy was shot in the left eye as opposed to his mouth as originally thought. There was no damage to the eye lid itself indicating that the eye was open when he was shot. Reasoning that most people close their eyes if they are going to shot oneself seems to indicate that Jeremy was shot by someone else instead of it being a self inflicted gunshot wound. Jeremy was moved to the Neurological Unit where he will get even more and specialized attention than being in the Trauma Critical Care Unit where he was at.

Over the weekend the two major issues continued to be pressure inside his head and his temperature. Since being shot and entering the hospital both of these have fluctuated—sometimes wildly. Over the weekend his temperature was as high as 104 degrees and on Monday was at 102.

Today Jeremy was supposed to have another surgery to remove his left eye. The damage was too great to have any hope of saving his eye. As of this posting I have not heard any news today on his condition or how the surgery went.

The doctors have not changed his odds of survival—they are still 50/50. It is still a mater or time and prayer. They are doing all they can for him, but if he survives it will be a long slow road that he travels. Thank you for your continued prayers for Jeremy and his family. I know they appreciate them.

Young Black Men & Violence

This week I intended to write about the Fall Retreat that 3 of our youth attended with our supporting church. It was a great weekend with over 150 youth attending. To read what the youth minister from Missouri Street wrote on his blog, click here.

However, an event occurred yesterday that preempted the other post. One of our 18 year old young men (Jeremy) was shot yesterday. At this point in the investigation the police do not know if the gunshot was self-inflicted or someone else shot him. He and his family are not doing well. The bullet from a “small caliber revolver” entered through the mouth and bounced around inside his brain where it remains. Although he still has too much function to be declared legally brain dead there is nothing more the doctors can do for him. According to the doctors “it is just a matter of time.”

Whether this was self-inflicted or not this event is just a grave reminder of violence in the lives of young black men. A couple years ago some young men from the neighborhood were playing Russian Roulette and a young man picked up the gun, spun the barrel and said, “What the *#@!, I have nothing to live for.” He then pulled the trigger and killed himself. Although we don’t know yet exactly what happened in Jeremy’s case, how sad and disturbing it is for a young man to play Russian Roulette because they don’t believe they have anything worth living for. When one has no hope of an education or a job or a decent standard of living, it can appear as though there is nothing to live for. Even if one wouldn’t be attempting suicide any other way, just sitting around and playing such a dangerous game with such a thought running through one’s mind blows me away.

Jeremy though did have something to live for. He had moved out of his momma’s house earlier in the year—a young man wanting his independence. However, just three days before this happened he had returned home. He had spoken to his mom about going down to the community college and getting his GED. He rode to and from church Wednesday night with me on the church van. At no time did he appear to be someone who was contemplating suicide. If this was a self-inflicted g.s.w. I have no idea what he could have been thinking—nor does any of his family.

On the other hand if he was shot by someone else, Jeremy has become just another statistic of black on black violence. One more scenario of a black man attempting (at this point) to kill another black man. What happened or what an argument could have been about is still unknown. Jeremy and another young man were alone in the back of a house where this took place. However, what is known is that we have become a culture that is desensitized to violence. Guns are too easy to get a hold of. It is time for the violence and the killing to stop!

Let me be perfectly clear, at this point it is still unclear exactly how Jeremy was shot. The police have not said one way or the other. However, I couldn’t help thinking about both scenarios and reflect about how many of our young black men in our society are “fated” to such a premature and violent death.