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I was in Memphis this weekend, bringing in the New Year with my assistant and her husband. As we were sitting and eating dinner, my assistant made reference to the guns that go off to celebrate the New Year and the danger they may pose. "What goes up, has to come down," she said. "A woman I know at church changed her baby's diaper and found a bullet that went through the roof of the church and landed in the diaper."
The story seemed outlandish, but my assistant never lies to me. It turns out that her words were more prophetic than I could have ever imagined.
A 4-year-old boy in Atlanta was killed 20 minutes after New Years, when a stray bullet went through the roof of his church and hit the child in the head. The incident took place at the Covington Drive Church of God of Prophecy in Decatur, Ga. His mother, Nathalee Peters, is asking for any information that might lead to finding out who may have killed her child, but the truth is that this information will probably never be found.
While we can't bring back the young boy who was killed by the stray bullet, we can all play a part in stopping incidents like this from happening in the future. If you see someone who plans to shoot off a gun to bring in the New Year, remind the person of the danger of engaging in such activity. Also, laws against such activity should be strengthened and enforced.
"I heard a little sound like a pink. I heard him scream a little bit, so I looked around to hand him the game, and that's when I saw the blood," Peters said. "I tried to pick him up and then he was losing consciousness, and he was just breaking and going down. It was so hard."
Let's hope that Ms. Peters finds justice. All of our hearts go out to her family, and we all know that church is the last place a child should be hurt on New Years Eve.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
Comments: (17)
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By: Trudy on 1/03/2010 9:00PM
Brooklyn You are oh so right. I even saw much older women who were not taught when I was growing up and they didn't teach there children and it has just become a vicious cycle. And for the most part when they see or hear intelligent people speak or talk, they automatically get the worst ignorant attitude you ever did witness. And their children and grand children and great grandchildren and great great grand children are the exact same way. It truly is a shame before God how ignorance breeds right along with the births. I am so tired of this same of ignorant shooting, stabbing, backbiting, jealous, ignorant ways until it's a shame, and I mean It Is Really Shameful and the sad part about it, is they don't even know just how shameful they really are! Ignorance is something very unfortunately you just can't make people see or even teach them, because for the most part ignorant people are preferrably UNTEACHABLE. AND THAT IS TRULY THE SAD STATE OF MIND THEY ARE IN AND REFUSE TO LEAVE. SO VERY SAD AND I DO MEAN IN REALITY S A D!!
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By: Evelyn on 1/04/2010 12:55AM
It will never end until Black Women get some self esteem and stop letting these men impregnate them and then leave them, just to go and make more. They need to start reporting them and making them take responsibility but, even better than that, get on birth control and use condoms. The birth control doesn't stop the AIDES and the birth control leaves you in charge. No woman in since 1967 should be having babies unless they want them. Whatever happened to "Marriage Before Carriage." It will make you life less complicated if he asked for your hand in marriage and not for a baby. That doesn't mean he loves you, it just means he want to control you. Wake up Black women, we're losing too many kids and mostly from ignorant Black men, because they're not taking their responsibilites seriously enough.
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By: Mookm988 on 1/05/2010 6:38PM
I agree with all that has been said because there is something in each comment that is correct about blacks lifestyle. When my daughter, only daughter became pregnant at 18 years old I agreed to help her in everyway that I could but in the event she had another child before she had a husband, she was on her own to raise that child by herself. She is now 27 years old and my grandson is 9 years old and still her only child and of course the father is in and out of prison so there is very little child support. My daughter worked at Wendys when she was pregnant the entire time and then she took up nursing assistant classes so she is a CNA and is able to take care of her son very well. I take some responsibility in her doing as well as she has because I made sure that every 3 months I was asking her if she had taken her birth control shot and no I don't feel like I was invading her privacy because as far as I was concerned she had invaded my privacy and rules by getting a child before marriage. By the way yes I was married to her father many years before she was born so I had raised her to respect her body and not be taken advantage of by any man. Oh yes when her father found out she was pregnant his first response was that she have an abortion but I said no she is 19 years old but then he didn't want his baby having a baby. All this is to say that yes generations of black women have allowed this type of mess to go on so long that it has become a style of life for them and yes they are just as ignorant as the comments above have stated. Any woman should want better for her child,grandchild, and even great grandchild at least I do and of course the Bible speaks many times about generations being cursed because of another generation in the family and this curses were not by God and can be broken but only through the Blood of Jesus. Black women especially need to go back to the Bible to learn how to be wives,mothers and women, women of God. As a young woman of 23 years old I got saved and I truly mean saved, learned from the older women,mothers of the church how to be a wife and then mother when I became one. It is okay to be different if it will save you and your family from generations and generations of pain and heartache. I challenge each of these black women to change yourself so that you can change your family, your life and most of all your future.
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By: Mary on 1/04/2010 5:39PM
What a terrible tragedy. My prayers and condolences go out to the mother and family. I pray that you will find peace knowing that he is now with God.
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By: faye on 1/05/2010 8:08AM
i think the shooting of guns to bring in the new year should be outlawed, period. last year, my neighborhood sounded like a war zone at the stroke of midnight on new years. this year, my husband and i were surprised that it was quiet; only a few shots. i found out later from my neighbors that people were having a hard time finding bullets at local stores because they were out of stock. its sad that we (my family) have to stay away from our windows and doors at that time to prevent getting hit from a a stray bullet. my prayers go out to the boy's family.
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By: Prophetess Brenda Saw Jesus+ on 1/05/2010 8:54AM
My prayers goes out to the family of the four year old victim. I certainly hope whomever was shooting in the area, at that time, will come forward. No earthly judge can judge like God. It may have been an accident...Do the right thing>God sees all!!!!
http://BrendaSawJesus.blogspot.com
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By: Mr. Smileyface on 3/22/2010 7:50PM
My God, this is sad. I posted a link to it in my blog, people really shouldn't use guns unless they intend to kill. This is one child I'm gonna pray for. The child is probably happy in Heaven.
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