Heart Of America

Editor, Times-Union:
3 a.m. I am up, because I could not sleep. Saddened over the condition of the heart of the people of our country. Saddened over my own heart condition. Attorneys general, elected even after knowing that he had wished his opponent and his children murdered. Conservative groups on college campus or peaceful organized events, harassed and attacked. Who are we? But more importantly, who could we be, who do we want to be? What will the world be like for our children and grandchildren if we continue to ignore and accept violence as an answer to opposing views?
John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Words for the foundation of our country.
I wish so badly for each of us to evaluate our own heart posture and choose to love your neighbor. To see humility and respect over price and vain conceit.
In the early 1930s, Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemoller sympathized with many Nazi ideas and supported their political movement, but later became an outspoken critic of Hitler’s interference in the Protestant Church. He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule in prisons and concentration camps. He has a profound quote of a man who didn’t care enough about how others were treated until it was too late.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”
We are born by those who went before us. Many have sacrificed so much to make ours a better world, with liberty and justice for all. It is never too late to start Operation Kindness. See peace, do good to those that God has put in your path. Mother Teresa once said, “I can do things you cannot; together we can do great things.”
I pray for each of us to “do great things,” with a kind heart.
Julie Runnells
Warsaw
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
- 1 Corinthians 13:1