Cheers to Sergeant Landon Groger for saying out loud what most public officials refuse to mention after another horrendous teenage shooting in Louisiana:
The opening weekend of the high school football season was marred by a fatal shooting at the Brusly-Port Allen game on Friday night. Sergeant Landon Groger with the West Baton Rouge Sheriff’s during halftime, 18-year-old Jarrettin Jackson the Second shot 16-year-old Ja’Kobe Queen only a few feet away from a concession stand.
“It is my understanding that there was an altercation that occurred between these two, but as far as details to what led up to that horrifying event, it’s unclear at this time,” said Groger.
Queen was a student at Brusly High School. A 26-year-old woman was also shot in the arm.
Groger says it was a senseless act of violence at one of the biggest events of the year in West Baton Rouge Parish, the Sugar Cane Classic.
“After a hot summer, everybody was looking forward to coming out on these Friday night lights, not only were there students and teachers there, but we had families, children, staff and just our communities coming together as a whole,” said Groger.
Groger says they’ll work to make sure future football games and other public events in West Baton Rouge are safe. But he says its a bad situation when an 18-year-old feels a need to bring a gun to a high school football game.
“It starts in the home with the parents, and discipline, and being involved with your faith based groups,” said Groger.
--Jeff Palermo, Louisiana Radio Network (bolding added)
It is very refreshing to see Sgt. Groger’s words about parents, discipline, and religion. But what about the rest of Louisiana’s government officials? Why aren’t they speaking out each and every day with this same message? Often what we hear are the same stale slogans about job training to give people discipline and purpose/direction in life, as well as harsher punishment for criminals. Those are fine, and necessary, and they will help some people. But they aren’t going to hold back the floodtide of crime that is continuing to rise. Only religion has the power to do that.
Interestingly, it is the ‘poor, backward’ countries of eastern Europe that seem to understand this, rather than ‘rich, advanced’ countries of the West. For instance, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Christians in Serbia sent this message to the schoolchildren there as their new academic year for 2023 began:
Dear children, dear schoolchildren, may the Lord bless you, your fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, relatives, teachers, your friends whom you play with, all people and all children.
May God also bless the schools where you study and learn different things. However, we should all know, both teachers and parents, but also you, students, that more important than knowledge is to acquire virtue, that is, to become good people, and a good person is one who feels love first for his family and friends, but also towards all people, towards all nature, towards the whole world. This means love is the most important thing.
Love is the most precious gift that God gave to man. The only condition for someone to be happy, whether he is a child like you, whether he is a grown man or maybe an old man, like your grandparents, is to have love in his heart. Everything else, if he has a nice house, the fastest car, the best phone, a lot of money, the best grades and prizes in competitions, if he sings or draws the best in the art school, if he is the strongest and scores the most goals—all this is nothing if he has no love for his friends, for people, for children, for nature. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t compete to see who will do better in school, who will get a better grade, but it means that we shouldn’t envy someone who’s better, but rather rejoice in his success, and try harder ourselves.
We also help each other learn better, because we all need each other, we all depend on each other. That’s why we should cultivate friendship and togetherness. We should pray to God for each other. We should pray that our God, Jesus Christ, will give us love, that we will be closer to Him, our God, and that we will be closer to each other, to our parents, brothers and sisters, friends...
I pray for you, children, that God will protect you, that He might give everyone health and joy, and since I know that children’s prayers are most beloved to God, I ask you to pray for me, to pray for the whole world, for all people, so that there might be harmony, peace, and love. Cheers, dear children! May God bless you!
The bishops of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria issued an even more striking statement recently:
. . .
The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2023/09/garlington-a-sheriff-who-understands-whats-driving-epidemic-crime/.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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