Dear editor,

It is Christmas Eve and I was sitting and being lost in thought, and I felt hot tears flooding my eyes.

I was thinking of two homicide victims who lost their lives on the same day.  One was a 28-year-old man in Mobile and of course 18-year-old beautiful, smart, ambitious and kind Alexis Hunter — a girl whose dreams were snuffed out in one crazy, heartless act of violence as she and friends minded their own business. I thought of others too and their bereaved families.

Is the answer in gun control law laws? Yes, partly. Can it be the glorifying of rap music? It’s only in part, because it really lies in a depraved heart and warped mind that is devoid of conscience and empathy.

We can all relate to the atrocities and harm of slavery, but today we witness the genocide of a new generation. We are not desensitized at all. We are just feeling helpless and weary as we keep watching a human train wreck.

There may be many contributing factors to what is happening today. But it’s mostly because when I grew up in the 60s, we were usually ordered to have prayer in school, Sunday school, Bible reading, and reverence for God, while many youth today are not afforded this blessing and privilege.

So they wander aimlessly like zombies with not an iota of thought in their actions, but acting on senseless in pulse and not caring about the ripple effect they have on the world around them.

It is time to reflect on second Timothy where it speaks of these perilous dark days. We think about a loving forgiving, gracious God who sustains us and a wicked malicious, destructive adversary who seeks to overcome us and lurks to hop out lie a Jack-in the-Box at anybody at anytime.

Many today don’t respect life and sanctity of it. Instead, they try to demean it by their vicious, irresponsible and wrong action. Her cheerful face was etched in my mind as I tried to push the thoughts away, but they invaded my soul and I wept again.

They were victims of an ever-spreading social cancer that is the aberration of black-on-black crime, and it’s like a typhoon. We grieve for anguished mother and father who matured her for 18 years and had her taken in an instant. Her legacy of loved and kindness will live on in the hearts of those who knew her and those who didn’t. My judge doesn’t sit on a bench — He’s all powerful and rightness and sits in the throne room of heaven, one day He will judge us all and soon will not fare well as Revelation plainly states. Alexis, even the name sounds joyous.

Bobbie King

Selma