On Saturday night of April 9, 2016 in NEW ORLEANS, a former
Saints defensive end and member of the Super bowl winning team, Mr. Will Smith
lost his life from yet another senseless and irrational use of gun by one Mr.
Cardell Hayes after a traffic altercation.
The fatal shooting of the New Orleans football star have
resurrected the conversation on the use of gun and also the culture of how we
can interact with one another in a modern and humane fashion.
While the family, friends and fans mourn the lost of this
illustrious son, the question about the use of gun cannot be overemphasized.
It is therefore very critical that all stakeholders and the
citizenry come together and help transform the culture of gun and its
associated violence in the country.
We cannot afford to continue to waste precious lives due to
reckless endangerment and unnecessary fatalities as a result of the use of gun.
The society, which depends primarily on gun and other
weaponry as the primary source of security for lives and properties, is to a
greater extent uncivilized.
Additionally when the value of life is not any differently
more important and sacred from the right to possession of gun and the
profiteering network that enhances, indoctrinates and cajole citizenry to
continue to perpetuate this detrimental culture, then we are really in deep
troubled waters in the United States of America in particular and the world at
large.
While I have not qualm with the right to bear arms, nor the
use of arms as a means of defending loved ones and self from “predators” in
context of a life and death situation, my conscience as a Christian does not
support the idea that my life ultimate protections and security must be
enshrined in the power of “gun” or arms as that primary source of defense.
In light of the above and without reservation, and as a
Christian, I am urging humanity to turn to God and allow love to guide our
actions and even inactions too.
I would rather pick up the Bible, concede and be humiliated
than to lose my life due to arrogance, pride and or get somebody killed simply
because I feel the possession of guns makes me “superior” to the other guy.
If we cannot disagree without being disagreeable, argue
without recourse to arms conflict and above all learn to value the sacredness
of lives, as a gift from God to be cherished by all, then ours is a generation
that is sincerely on a path to self-destruction and a gloomy eschatology.
PODEH/2016
