Every so often I come across a story that truly makes me ill. I mean that literally: Some stories have the ability to make one physically ill. When I read this one, it made me feel as if someone had drilled a giant hole into my stomach.
The setting is Kaufman, Texas, and what happened is that a couple of Sunday nights ago, on May 31, someone decided they would leave a message on a van belonging to a church with a black pastor, John Weaver. The message of pure hate and ignorance they spray painted on the van was:
“No N*iggers”
It should be noted that the Weaver family is the only African-American family living in their neighborhood, so it quickly becomes painfully obvious that the message on the van was meant for them. Pastor Weaver says:
?What really got me is, they put it on the church bus. Golly, we are Christians. We ain?t got no hate.?
But these racist vermin were not quite finished terrorizing the Weaver family. They also took the time to poison their puppy, Ka-lo. Church member Margaret Pipkins remarks:
?The most hurtful thing is, they killed the puppy. An innocent puppy.?
The Weavers say while this incident may have been intended to scare them away, they aren’t going anywhere. Weaver defiantly says:
??I see it as a message to all the black people in Kaufman.?We aren’t going nowhere. We are going to be there.?
The Kaufman Police Department insists that they are taking the case very seriously, issuing a statement which reads?in part:
?The Kaufman Police Department has had our entire department working on this case and trying to develop leads to determine who the person or persons are that committed this crime and we are asking for the public’s help.”
And despite this horrible act of hate and intolerance, Margaret Pipkins says they forgive whoever did such a terrible thing:
?I hope they will know that we love them and we will forgive them. We hold no hate in our heart.?
Pastor Weaver echoed those sentiments:
?You can’t retaliate behind nothing like this, all you can do is pray. Continue to pray and pray for the one’s that did it also. Cause people’s lives change.?
Here is a personal message from me to the cowards who engaged in this act of terrorism: You are the lowest of the low, the scum of the earth. And I will also pray for you. But it’s going to be very difficult to do so.
