A young man was killed today, he was an up and coming football star it seems on one of the American  college football teams. I don’t know much about the college scene and American football, because I’m not a part of that society, but the story of this young man Jasper Howard’s death caught my attention. Murder has become so prevalent in our world today, it has become a numbers game. Like the statistics being read from a sports report we hear the news reporters rattling off the number of persons killed over a period of time from this town, that city or the other county. It has become such an every day “activity” that we are hardly reacting to the news anymore.

More than reaction though, we need action. Action and participation by everyone, no more counting and blaming. Whatever needs to be done from a governmental position to the individual citizen has to be done. NO longer can we sit idly by and let gangs take over our community and wander who’s to be blamed. The numbers game is a fatal game, the statistics that are read represent real people with family and friends who miss them. What can we do? I think one of the first places that needs to step up there game is the home, this is the individual’s  first encounter with the community, it’s the world that he knows for the first few months of his life. Here is where  he will learn to interact with others, resolve conflict, learn respect, discipline, or unfortunately it will be the place where he learns none of these things.

It seems that we expect to hear the latest tragic news of somebody’s untimely demise, shake our fists and heads and add up the numbers. Unfortunately this young man will be added to the statistics of those killed in his area, profession or any other category that he is eligible for due to his death. He woke up this morning probably planning to spend the rest of his day doing something relaxing and fun, expecting to get up and continue his life tomorrow, however, he has made the news of most media houses and tomorrow, some of us are going to forget his name, but we will learn that he is the… (number recorded)… murdered for the year in his city, town or county.

So many families have joined the ranks of those whose loved ones have become statistics to the rest of the world. Some only knew it from the point of view of the ones who heard about the news of the murdered victims, but more and more it’s becoming less and less uncommon for persons to be unaffected by this awful numbers game.