BY: \u00a0DARRYL W. PERRY<\/p>\n
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way those of the Tiger Media Network, its staff or Fort Hays State University<\/em><\/p>\n In July 1969 John Lennon released a song titled \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d that quickly became an anthem for the anti-war and counterculture movements. \u201cAnd on Nov. 15, [1969],\u201d The Nation reported, \u201chalf a million people gathered on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Pete Seeger led them in singing John Lennon\u2019s new song, \u2018Give Peace a Chance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n There are many similarities between 1969 and today, with racial tension and a seemingly endless military conflict. Though unlike 1969, protests are primarily in opposition to what appears to be systemic racism within the so-called criminal justice system. Since May 1, 2013, police have killed over 3700 people with some of those deaths gaining more notoriety than others, most notably: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling & Philando Castile. While the circumstances surrounding each of these deaths are different, there is one unifying factor: all of them were black and have been the catalyst for protests by the group Black Lives Matter. Note: just because someone says \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d does not mean they believe other lives don\u2019t matter, any more than someone at a rally against cancer could be construed as believing there shouldn\u2019t also be a cure for hepatitis.<\/p>\n Some have decided instead of peacefully protesting, they would become a vigilante. Micah Xavier Johnson, a US Army veteran, was among those who in recent days decided to take matters into his own hands and opened fire at police in Dallas. After shooting 12 police officers and 2 bystanders \u2013 and a lengthy negotiation \u2013 Johnson was killed by a police robot.<\/p>\n Micah Xavier Johnson wanted to send a message to police, and he did. However, he \u2013 and others who have decided to shoot police \u2013 have sent the wrong message. Matt Agorist of The Free Thought Project writes, \u201cThose who initiate and support such violence will be complicit in creating the hellish police state that will inevitably ensue as a consequence of their actions.\u201d Adding, \u201cIf a group of people rise up and claim to be freedom fighters and they do not have the support of the citizens, well, that \u2018revolution\u2019 was over before it started. I for one do not celebrate when anyone is killed and believe all loss of life is tragic. There\u2019s an old saying, \u201cif you live by the sword, you die by the sword.\u201d If we are to achieve a more peaceful society, it will not be achieved by violence, for violence is antithetical to peace. I ask you to look back at the words of John Lennon from 47 years ago as more than words in a song, and if you \u2013 like me \u2013 want a more peaceful society: give peace a chance!<\/p>\n — BY: \u00a0DARRYL W. PERRY The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way those of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[55],"tags":[10225,10223,10220,106,5855,6483,4360,10226,10224,10222,10221,103],"class_list":["post-27631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-give-peace-a-chance","tag-alton-sterling","tag-eric-garner","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-freddie-gray","tag-john-lennon","tag-michael-brown","tag-pete-seeger","tag-philando-castile","tag-sandra-bland","tag-tamir-rice","tag-tiger-media-network"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27633,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27631\/revisions\/27633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIf anyone thinks that killing cops and\/or praising the death of innocent people will amass public opinion in their favor\u2026 they are seriously delusional.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nDarryl W. Perry has spent most of his adult life as an advocate & activist for peace and liberty. Darryl is an award winning author, publisher & radio\/TV host. He is a regular contributor to several weekly and monthly newspapers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"