09/03/2020
Last Friday night, the quarterback at Red Level High School suffered a very scary injury during the game. The officials called for an injury time-out and the teams dispersed.
Straughn School is predominantly white. The injured quarterback from Red Level is black.
After a few seconds, the players and coaches from Straughn surrounded the young quarterback. Players from Red Level joined in. A hush fell across the field... it was dead still. And from the silence, a lone voice began to speak out...
I don’t know who that voice was, presumably a Coach, but what followed a was a beautiful prayer for healing and restoration. The entire stadium stopped during that prayer... the concession stand stopped. The officials stopped. The announcers stopped. Everything stopped, and everyone focused on the prayer... because everyone wanted that young man to be okay.
A predominantly white team went to kneel at the injured body of a young black man... and prayed for his recovery, his well-being, his healing.
I’m happy to report to you that the quarterback from Red Level was later diagnosed with a neck sprain, instead of the much more severe injury everyone feared. Tell me prayers don’t work....
But unfortunately, not everyone is happy about this display of in*******al brotherhood. Vernessa Thompson is a leader of the Democratic Party in Florala. She organizes voter registrations and ‘get to the poll movements.’ Upon seeing my previous post about the unity displayed at the stadium, Vernessa said we need to “vote this out”. Vernessa is a leader in the Democratic Party. She stands opposed to racial unity. She stands opposed to prayer. She stands opposed to healing... she is right that there is something we need to vote out- but it’s not faith, friends, unity or brotherhood. We need to vote out hate.
My name is Walt Merrell. I am a Christian. I am a Republican. I believe in unity, fairness and equality for all, freedom and faith. I will vote for those things in November. I will vote aagainst hate and hate mongers like Vernessa.
It’s time to heal our land. I’m tired of folks who only want to create further divide.
God bless. Good day.