Your cries seem to get louder each and every day...cries of
desperation and cries of frustration. The lives of children are being
threatened at school on a daily basis, as well as on the streets of our communities,
women, men, and children are trying to comprehend and gain understanding of
what and why are we seemingly facing loss of life on a daily basis in mass
proportion, rather than promoting life. Diseases, emotional instability, lack
of direction, and destruction of self and others seem to be the norm, rather
than the exception.
The past few years have been difficult times for many of you
and your family members. Each and every day you have been faced with one major
catastrophe after another within our country. Sadly, many of these catastrophes
are related to multiple losses of lives due to gun violence. President Barack
Obama has had to appear before the nation and the world at least sixteen (16)
times during his seven-year tenure, with the same cries of desperation, exasperation,
frustration, and seeming sense of helplessness about the continuous acts of gun
violence in our country.
October is breast cancer awareness month, as well as
domestic violence awareness month. I know as you are reading this blog, you can
think of more than one relative, friend, co-worker, or even yourself, who has
had to face breast cancer and/or domestic violence. In all actuality, either of
these experiences can serve as killers of women.
Each and everyday, too many women are faced with breast cancer and many more
are faced with domestic violence. In essence, women are fighting for their lives. However, those
women facing breast cancer or those women who have survived breast cancer are
in a daily battle of winning their fight for life. They didn’t cause their
unfortunate experience and cannot control it. Women facing domestic violence,
in many cases cannot control and did not ask for the violence acted upon them.
They, too, are fighting on a daily basis for life and not death.
Sadly, as women fight to win life over death when it comes
to breast cancer and domestic violence, our country is constantly thrown into a
tailspin of controllable incidents of violence and death being raised up
against them. Even though many of these incidents of violence and death do not
directly impact these women, there is an indirect impact, which does add to
their levels of stress and anxiety. After all, they are human. And when
children and families are hurt, no matter where they are, the average woman is
impacted and feels the pain.
There have been forty-five…yes 45-school shootings in our
country in 2015. The mass shooing rate has tripled from one every two hundred (200)
days, between September 1982 and September 2011, to one every sixty-four (64)
days, between September 2011 and September 2014. Guns in America have killed
over eight thousand (8,000) people in 2015 alone. There have been one hundred
forty-two (142) school shootings since the Sandy Hooks shooting in 2012, with
forty-five (45) school shootings in 2015, (Harvard School of Public Health &
Northeastern University Professors).
It is past time in our society for us to demand that women,
men, girls, and boys are given a chance at life. It is time for each of you to
decide to become proactive by demanding that a cure for breast cancer is found,
that women are made safe from domestic violence, and that gun control becomes
the rule and not the exception. Each of
you must decide to do all in your power to demand that the political pundits
begin to stand for something by demanding the lives of women, men, girls, boys,
and families are protected! And that they stop falling for the same lame excuses
as they have in the past!
As women are faced with
breast cancer and domestic violence, they most certainly don’t need anything
else to have to fight against. They are already in the fight of their life, for
life! I implore each of you to support your mother, your wife, your sister,
your aunt, your friend, and your co-worker, as she battles breast cancer and/or
domestic violence. In that same vein, I implore you to demand more funds for
treatment and a cure for breast cancer, support for survivors,
treatment and help for domestic violence survivors, funds for mental health
treatment, as well as legislation and funds for gun control.
The situation almost seems hopeless. However, I would like
to encourage you to never lose your faith and never lose your hope. I know that many of you have wondered, “When
will it all end?” This is the million-dollar question, which no one seems to
have an answer for. The problem is not
having an answer to the loss of lives due to guns, it’s having people in
powerful positions, with money and control, who are so arrogant and haughty
that they choose to not make the necessary changes for legislation to put forth
gun control, which is the real issue related to gun violence in this country.
We ask why there is no
cure for breast cancer with all the money that has been raised, why incidents
of domestic violence have increased and become more deadly, and why gun
violence has exacerbated? It’s all about the almighty dollar! If breast cancer
is cured, domestic violence is all but eliminated, and there is gun control,
those making money and getting rich from these deadly societal ills will
drastically cut their earning potential. This is a topic no one really wants to
talk about! Although they make money off of the deaths of women, men, children,
and families in general, they never take time to look at the back of the money
they receive, which simply states, “IN
GOD WE TRUST.”
The statement, “IN GOD WE TRUST,” is a reminder as to
whom we must turn to, in order to help us to find a cure and relief for ALL of
these deadly issues, by helping us to win the fight for life, and not succumb
to death. When prayer was taken out of
our schools and out of society in general, you began to see the downward spiral
of lawlessness, ruthlessness, and an increase in violence and diseases. Where
God doesn’t exist, pain and violence tend to exist. But, hold on; God is STILL
in control!
You are probably asking, “What can I do?” Join Dr. Joyce on
her campaign of “Winning the Fight for Life.” In this quest to win the
fight for life, it is imperative that you become aware, informed, and active. Get with your neighbors, friends, family members, and
colleagues to develop strategies to combat these major ills in our society. You
must develop and engage in strategic
conversations, as well as brave political movements of consciousness, awareness,
and action to address these issues. You must also demand that politicians stop
using mental health disorders as the primary excuse for gun violence, while
recognizing that mental health disorders are real and must be treated as
such. It is time to recognize that persons facing mental health disorders are
not necessarily the catalyst for murders and violence. However, when guns are
in the wrong hands, violence will occur, whether they have a mental disorder or
not.
As you and your family
weep for loved ones facing breast cancer and/or domestic violence, you
shouldn’t have to add additional tears and weep for the loss of loved ones due
to gun violence. Let’s affirm today that you will dry your tears, weep no more,
continue to PRAY, keep looking up, and take a stand for life! You have decided
today to join Dr. Joyce in “Winning the Fight for Life, By Not
Succumbing to Death!”
If my people, who are called by
my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and
will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
©2015; J.Morley Productions,
Inc.; P.O. Box 1745, Decatur, GA 30031; www.doctorjoyce.com;
770-808-6570
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