Written by Carl Hitchens   

Taking in the big picture is usually essential in discovering the truth – getting all the relative facts and fitting them together into a full contextual picture of an occurrence or event. However, the “big picture” can be so broadly drawn as to diffuse the power of the little picture for immediate consumption and responsive action.

Benjamin Watson, in his articulate, earnest sharing of his personal distress over the “Ferguson Decision” applies such a broad, personal, religious brushstroke to the moral dilemma and correction of future “Fergusons” that the power of human commonality in living the human condition is lost. The power inherent in addressing our common experience is deflated by the exclusivity of a singular religious point of view. Do you need to intimately know Jesus, Buddha, Yahweh, etc., need to be a “believer” to apprehend that being shot to death, while wounded and unarmed is unnecessary in the policing of a civilian population you are sworn to protect from its own excesses upon itself?

In Vietnam – under the conditions and rules of war – when under fire my unit returned fire. When sweeping through an area, engaging enemy forces on the run we fired. (The rules of war: if they can’t be taken prisoner, you eliminate their ability to maim or kill you in another engagement.) As far as I know, our streets and neighborhoods in America are not the Free-Fire Zones we classified in Nam, where the good guys and gals were leafleted to get out and anyone else sighted was an enemy combatant.

Now, Benjamin Watson closes his declaration saying:
“I'M ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our authority. SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn. BUT…

“I'M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through the his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind. One that's capable of looking past the outward and seeing what's truly important in every human being. The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It's the Gospel. So, finally, I'M ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind hope.” (https://www.facebook.com/BenjaminWatsonOfficial?fref=nf)

All do respect, Benjamin Watson, I don't think the cure for the spate of young black men killed at the hands of white police and individual vigilantes is “not a skin problem,” as you allege. I don't think the gospel truth, recited perfunctorily as a self-identifying coat of arms, unites us as one humanity. The true baptism is not of belief that divides our acceptance of each other, but of unconditional love, which poses no such restrictions.

The problem with obedience to a conceptualized "higher authority" for one’s moral foundation is that it is coming from outside of one’s self.
Sin all week, confession on Sat. and absolution, communion on Sunday; Monday thru Fri. ‘forget about it.” A recurring cycle of sin and absolution
but no personal imbuing with the qualities of consciousness associated with the “Commandments” enforcing piety. And by putting a situation
that engages us all at an immediate visceral level of common human experience (needing security and acceptance) into the infinite space of
religious abstraction as predicated by a singular branching of a singular religion, the very divisions between human beings being addressed
are given credence and sanctified. As such, without personal reflection within the core of one’s true being – arising from the “Source” of
human origination, as felt instinctually, religious divisions become just that: divisive points of separation by which individuals and groups of individuals become judge, jury, and executioner.

In all do respect, Mr. Watson, the social, cultural, and economic forces that form the divided experiences of Americans are not lived under a singular religious/spiritual influence or persuasion. The relativity of being human is much more universal and potent than the relativity of belief that insinuates the stratification of human consciousness for good or evil is the result of a particular religious belief and faith, rather than the growth of
consciousness. The word of God is often the “word of man,” which has sanctioned murder, slavery, and genocide down through history. So, perhaps your assessment of Ferguson being “not a SKIn problem, it is a SIN problem” is actually wide of the mark of the big picture you argue “gives mankind hope.” At the very list, it sucks the wind out of the sails of
human commonality, which points to Ferguson as a perversion of our true relationship to one another. It is really much more simple than you intimate.

In all the controversy and deduction over what happened and whether Michael Brown's killing was justified or not, common sense reveals the following: Once Brown turned to run away, from the armed police officer, whether having sustained a gunshot wound or not, it was he that was in fear for either his life or capture. The only reason to turn to face the officer, as the officer continued to fire his weapon (12 shots fired all toll) was to give up or concede by virtue of wounded incapacity the inevitable capture. Otherwise, you keep running. All else is abstraction and merely muddles the simple truth. Therein lies the immediate moral judgment on Brown's death. Prejudice and devaluing the life of someone who is different from you in race and features IS about skin. Sin by skin is age-old.