I recently got back in touch with my uncle Joe and his partner Dave, after years of comparative - though amicable - silence. I started reading Dave's blog, and he mine. You've probably seen him in the comments.
Last week he wrote about a shocking hate crime that was committed in England last August against a disabled man. If you Google "Brent Martin murder", Dave's blog entry is the second result shown. I will leave the details to you to discover if you choose to - I don't wish to discuss them here because they sicken me.
Dave has asked that his readers observe, in their own way, a period of mourning as a protest for this unconscionable crime. I have been thinking about it since, and considering what I can best do.
I don't have much of a voice in the world. I am what I am. I stay at home, literally, spending a lot of intensive time with my children. I don't go many places - maybe the house of a friend a couple of times a week. I read. I make things. I do dishes.
But I can speak to you, whoever you are who is reading this blog. And God hears my voice. So I am telling you about it, and I am praying.
I am praying for peace and hearts' ease for Brent's family. I'm praying for the jury's wisdom. Praying that his murderers - mere boys - feel their guilt, so that they can feel remorse, so that they can repent. Praying that the world I brought my children into is not as bad as I fear it is.
Poor, poor man.
Rest. In peace.
7 comments:
Shannon, you moved me to tears. Thank you so much for this, thank you for caring, thank you for coming back into my life.
Memory Eternal Brent Martin.
Dear Shannon, I am proud to call Dave "friend," and through him I know you.
My heart agrees with yours. I too, have been praying for the boys that did this, for what must their lives have been like, to bring them to this point? I pray that Brent changes them and the course of their lives.
If that happens, his death will have saved them as Jesus's death saved us.
What you felt you could do - and did - was good.
I'm not even going to read the full story because I know it will make me sick. But I have to say, I think human nature has always had and always will have a bleak, dark, disgusting side. And I don't see any redeeming potential in any remorse that any murderers may come to feel. It just is what it is. Thankfully, that is not all we are.
So horribly sad! I just don't get it. Thanks for sharing this!
Hi. I read, but don't think I've commented before. I live in the UK, and the *worst* thing about this story, for me, is that I thought you were talking about a *different* case. In the UK. Where a man with learning disabilities was targetted, brutalised, and ultimately killed by grown boys/young men. This, though, was 2006. The details are vile - worse, in some ways, than Brent Martin, as the attacks were pre-meditated and sustained over months. The details are sickening, and here. The story reporting on their jail term being CUT is here.
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