It’s time, maybe past time, for citizens to speak up. Not, mind you, speaking up on a national level. That’s for the conservative pundits and radio/TV personalities to do. They are great at making waves and spreading the word, but who are they talking to?
You.
That’s right. They are talking to you. By themselves they make you more aware of what’s going on and provide you with information.
What do you do with that? Do you holler at your radio/TV “Yeah! That’s right! You tell ’em what’s what!” then pump your fist in the air in the mistaken belief that somehow that information is going to magically get into the heads of your local leaders and neighbors?
Get real.
Lest you think I’m fussing at you, let me be quick to point out that was my very thought for quite some time. But then something happened with my local Board of Commissioners that made me realize they needed to hear from me.
Here’s what happened.
I RSVP’d to a town hall-type of event in DeKalb County (Georgia) featuring the topic of violence and what could be done about it. I get email blasts from the commissioner that represents the district in which I live.
However, I had some time in between projects and read the entire newsletter. Stopping me in mid-read was a notice that there was to be a giveaway of gun safes and gun locks at that event. I scrolled on further and what did I spy with my little eye? It was the DeKalb Gun Violence Resolution from the Board of Commissioners.
At that I said aloud, “You know, Angie Belle, you better read this before you go.” And thus, I did and was quickly horrified. Not only that, the resolution was already a year old. How had I missed it all this time? Or was this the first they had blasted out? I did not know.
Printing a copy of the resolution to use as an outline for a written response, I jumped all over writing a letter. Five hours later, it was done, though it was nothing like the criticism that originally poured out.
Here’s Why I Changed My Tactics
What was my goal? Was it to make an enemy hate me more so I could brag and say “Aha! Look at how witty and brutal I can be with my rapier-sharp wit!”
Oooor…
Was it to make a hard-working group of sincere folks understand where they were making missteps and from that fuel the return to logic, law, and liberty?
Thus, I chose the second method and that’s why it took me so long to write the letter. At the same time, I did not want to pussyfoot around so much that they’d think I was a quockerwodger obediently repeating words and phrases I was told.
I wanted, and needed, my Board of Commissioners to understand that what they were doing was wrong and here’s why and how it would turn out and that they were just a part of the problem: Others needed to do better, also, and I listed those.
And I needed to do it by also quoting scriptures where they made the point.
I let a friend read the letter and here is what he said. “Angela, this is brilliant and eloquent but…aren’t you afraid they will think you’re a gun-loving, Christian scripture-spouting nutjob?”
If I’d been that, then the letter would’ve been much shorter. Instead, it laid the case for their overstepping the bounds of what they are hired to do and, further, if there was anyone on the board who had been afraid to speak out against the more outspoken members — (notice I did not say more radicalized) — then they would know someone in their county had their back.
I also included in the letter requests for information that would back up the WHEREAS statements that ultimately was making their case for more gun control laws by funding the CDC by turning gun violence into some sort of health emergency.
A health emergency? All a “health emergency” is good for is depriving citizens of their rights. Hey, didn’t we just go through that with the Covid Lockdown debacle? I remember that. Do you?
My letter, a hard copy — not emailed! — was sent to each board member and is in direct response to what is happening here in DeKalb County (Georgia), what was in the resolution, and the actions of the Board of Commissioners. I offer it here merely as one example of a type of thoughtful hard-copy letters many more citizens need to send at their local level.
If just a handful of people did that locally, imagine the impact it could have. Our radio/TV pundits keep telling us we need to act locally in order to keep Liberty strong. Your letters will vary, of course, but start writing.
Remember: Small drops of water a mighty river makes.
BEGIN LETTER
Board of Commissioners
DeKalb County, Georgia
1300 Commerce Drive
Decatur, GA 30030
August 4, 2023
Re: DeKalb Gun Violence Resolution
Dear Board Members,
Thank you for your hard work on behalf of DeKalb County, Georgia. I know you have your hands full dealing with issues on many fronts in our fast-growing area. I moved to this county in 2010 from Henry County, have not been sorry for the move, and have no plans to leave the county I now call home.
I noticed this resolution is dated 2022. If you sent it before, I missed it and therefore the late comments from me. But my comments are still necessary and are included on the next pages. It is with confidence I look forward to receiving clarification.
However, after having read the DeKalb Gun Violence Resolution that was sent out in an email blast a few weeks ago, I became worried that, while well-meaning in its intent, the old saying comes to mind: The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
That is doubly true when the plan doesn’t fit the problem.
I write simply to give a gentle reminder to the Board of Commissioners that they are here to conduct specified business and maintain a trustworthy oversight on behalf of DeKalb County citizens and businesses without overstepping the authorization entrusted to them.
I noted that certain terms in the resolution were not defined, proofs for certain statements were not noted, and offered solutions were not practical or did not fit what the real problem is.
After carefully reading the resolution, I had to ask what purpose it serves? My answer was — I could be wrong, but I don’t think so — to let the citizens know of your intentions. Yet those intentions are rather formless other than you really, really, really want the CDC involved in research into a particular subject.
Guns are not the problem. They are merely one option that some people turn to. No weapon itself is the problem.
The problem is that the number of people who want to misuse weapons of any sort is growing because of what the scripture says at Ecclesiastes 8:11:
“Because sentence against a bad work has not been executed speedily, that is why the heart of the sons of men has become fully set in them to do bad.”
As I write this, we have a criminal as president of our country. From his own mouth he proudly and publicly gave evidence against himself in the taking of a multi-million-dollar bribe after having a prosecutor in Ukraine fired that was investigating a crime in which he was involved…and that is just the tip of his and his family’s traitorous crimes. Citizens see him and his criminal family members smiling big and boasting and throwing threats around.
Does this build trust and confidence in their elected leaders? It does not.
Citizens see a corrupt DOJ and other ABC agencies protecting that criminal family and their enterprise, surely making them feel like Asaph when he wrote about the ease with which criminals operate as these verses in Psalm 73 show:
Verse 3: “I would see the very peace of the wicked people…”
Verse 6: “Violence envelops them as a garment.”
Verse 8: “About defrauding they speak in an elevated style.”
Verse 12: “They have increased their means of maintenance.”
Verse 21 and 22: “For my heart was soured and in my kidneys I was sharply pained. And I was unreasoning and I could not know; I became as mere beasts…”
We have a governor (Illinois) who is allowing non-citizens to apply for jobs as police officers and promotes “that non-U.S. citizens must be able to obtain, carry, purchase, or otherwise possess a firearm under federal law to apply for the job.” All the while making it nigh impossible for citizen police to do their jobs and putting them in so much danger they quit.
We have mayors in several cities and governors in several states around the nation who refuse to back the blue — except when it is to protect them — and are driving them out of their services as they gut the power of perfectly fine laws or ignore them completely to let criminals run free.
Does this build trust and confidence in their elected leaders? It does not.
And let a lawful citizen be compelled to use force, deadly or not, to protect themselves, their families, or their neighbor, and who gets charged with crimes? The protector, that’s who.
Does this build trust and confidence in their elected leaders? It does not.
When citizens see laws and law enforcement weaponized against that which is good, no wonder they ask why “has sentence against a bad work not been executed speedily?”
We rightly ask cui malo? That would be the citizens who are harmed thus eroding strong community foundations.
We rightly wonder cui bono? That would be the criminals all day long as they laugh in our faces while abusing citizens, destroying property. After all, who’s going to stop them? All they have to do is profess they are mentally ill, misunderstood for any of a host reasons, or can claim their punishment is a hate crime because they are a member of an indefinable and vague class.
And what about religious leaders?
Religion as entertainment is big business, but does it actually build faith in Almighty God’s purpose? Religions who move child-molesting church pastors to new locations where nobody knows their crimes destroy faith in God Himself. Then there are the pastors who use God and politicians as cover for criminal activity and set up not-for-profits for their own financial gain even as they ignore the very citizens they say they help.
Does this build trust and confidence in elected leaders and God Himself? It does not.
Then we have the infiltration of Science and Medicine and Education. RetractionWatch.com reports only on the tip of the iceberg of plagiarism, false reporting, and data manipulation in scientific and medical research; the pushing of narrowly focused curriculums from K-12 and higher that seek to divide people as they ignore actual subjects they need; as well as calling attention to those who are fighting for accuracy and scrupulous rigor but are being fired, demoted, sued, and charged with crimes for no good reason.
Does this build trust and confidence in information we need to decide on healthcare options such as medicines, treatments, and surgeries or in the education system? It does not.
There is the too-early sexualizing of children with the public flaunting of laws by allowing both male and female children to perform sexually in front of adults or adults to perform sexually in front of children and some of their parents in publicly funded buildings like libraries and schools and in public at festivals. Certain elected leaders tacitly allow these crimes because they do not prosecute or allow prosecution according to common-sense laws already on the books that protect children.
Does this build trust and confidence in elected leaders, librarians, teachers, etc., to have the best interests of our children at heart? It does not.
And then there is the mainstream media that pushes identical coordinating messaging that is designed to prove the bad is good and good is bad. But Isaiah 5:20 says “Woe to those who are saying that good is bad and bad is good, those who are putting darkness for light and light for darkness, those who are putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Research might be fine and well. I myself love research. But research solves nothing if the underlying problem is not being addressed.
So, just what is that underlying problem?
Simply put, it is the idea that all things are equally fine to do and be and how dare anyone say otherwise? If all things were equally fine, there would be no need for a Board of Commissioners. If all things were equally fine, there would be no need for law enforcement since laws would be meaningless. If all things were equally fine, there should be no problems.
Humans will be humans and no amount of legislation can change DNA. Thus, all things are not equally fine as you yourselves know. Such thinking has led to anarchy. The solution is not from the top down. The solution is from the local level up.
Law-abiding citizens in our fine county take our obligations as citizens seriously. We act strongly against those with troublemaking on their minds when they come to our streets, our houses, and our neighborhoods.
I back the blue, but even they get downhearted. That’s why when I see them, I roll down my window and give them two thumbs up or, if they roll down their window, I say, “We, the law-abiding, thank you even though the chuckleheads don’t. Never forget that.”
Officers don’t know who is going to do what when they arrive. Just because someone calls for help, doesn’t mean they aren’t part of the problem themselves. Then they don’t know if they, too, will be sued or charged for rightfully doing the job they trained for, even if they do all things well.
Mental illness and drug use seem to cause a lot of these troubles. Weapons they use are something as silly as throwing ceramic coffee cups to as serious as hurling large hunks of metal and rocks, breaking glass, screaming, destroying property both private and public. For these we have no recourse within the system because it is broken…or overwhelmed. No matter what we do to get help for these people — thorough documenting and reporting of incidents — we get the runaround from one agency to another.
“You don’t have the correct form.”
“That’s not the thing we deal with.”
“Call [this other agency].”
“Go to court.”
Where we then are met with “You don’t have the correct form…” or didn’t meet a small detail nobody told us about or was even written down anywhere. Can you see the frustration all citizens are dealing with?
So, I’m really concerned with the focus on the “sexy” topic of guns instead of actually looking at the County itself and vigorously applying the perfectly fine laws that already exist. Remember. Romans 12:21 says: “Do not let yourself be conquered by the evil, but keep conquering the evil with the good.”
That means don’t be sidetracked by “feel-good” methods, but stand strong for the common-sense that already is codified in law and in your law-abiding citizens daily actions.
Sincerely,
Angela K. Durden
CC:
District 2: Michelle Long Spears
District 3: Larry Johnson
District 4: Steve Bradshaw
District 5: Mereda Davis Johnson
District 6: Ted Terry
District 7: Lorraine Cochran-Johnson
Please see the list of specific questions, comments, or requests on the following pages.
Comments, Questions, Requests
1. Comment: Common-sense gun control exists now.
2. Comment: The solution is not MORE LAWS but the application and defense of existing laws and of our law enforcement agencies, and the punishment of those who break those laws.
3. Request: Define epidemic as used here to describe gun violence. I assume you mean the epidemic is here in our County. If that is correct, please cite your source to historical and current stats for our County.
4. Request: Please cite your source to US historical and current stats as used here to describe gun violence along with how that compares to DeKalb County.
5. Request: Please provide the definition of “premature death” as used here.
6. Request: After much research, I could not find anywhere any stats that recognized “gun violence” as THE leading cause of premature deaths in the US. I found heart attacks, cancers, drug abuse, etc., but not gun violence. Please cite your source.
7. Request: Please cite your source for this statement. (I could not find it.) —
QUOTED FROM RESOLUTION DOCUMENT: WHEREAS, every day, more than 110 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded, resulting in more than 38,000 deaths and nearly 85,000 injuries annually; and
8. Request: Please provide DeKalb County Statistics of same for comparison.
9. Request: Please provide the definition and parameters of mass shootings as used.
10. Question: Why is the BoC advocating on behalf of the CDC?
11. Question: Is the BoC advocating for federal-level funding or volunteering to fund with County monies?
12. Question: What makes it necessary for DeKalb County to fund the CDC explicitly?
13. Question: What is the definition as used here of “evidence-based policy”?
14. Question: What does “gun use” mean as used here?
15. Question: Background checks and banning sales do not STOP CRIMINALS. These things exist now and law-abiding citizens comply. Criminals never will comply.
16. Question: What are the “all necessary documents”? What will they accomplish? Who are they for? Who gets to read them?
END LETTER
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Born and raised in Georgia, Angela K. Durden is an author, publisher, editor, songwriter, performer, and more, living in Metro Atlanta, Georgia. She appreciates your support of her Citizen Journalism by purchasing her books. Visit her Consolidated Author Page and buy a book or three. See more about Angela here. Want to watch a fun video? Click here.
