Today our dear nation is undergoing a hurricane of turbulence.  On top of COVID-19, we now have race riots. As I see our cities burn, I think of God’s admonition in the Old Testament where he spoke of “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”  We are experiencing that iniquity today. Julia Ward Howe wrote of “trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored”, but evil is not easy to stamp out.  The heritage of slavery, that foul residue of those grapes of wrath, continues to rise up and smite us today. 

No one can excuse racial injustice.  When it happens, we must fight it with all our strength.  Yet, in our rage for justice we should never commit evil acts.  If we do, we are hating God and his commandments and bringing past inequities down upon our heads, the very thing He warned us against.  The great majority of police officers are good and honest people.  Most white Americans bear no animosity against blacks.  All of us, white and black,  yellow and brown, want a peaceful and prosperous nation in which to rear our children.  We must love one another!

America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

God bless America!