Taming the Tongue
By David Triana
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.”
James 3, 9-10 (NIV)
On February 26, 2009, at 1:45 a.m., 60-year-old Dannie Baker, walked approximately 20 yards in the townhome complex he lived at. In his hand he carried a rifle, when he got to the other townhome he was headed towards, he peered through the window and opened fire into it!
By the time he was done, Racine Balbontin-Argandona, 22, and Nicolas Pablo Corp-Torres, 23, were killed, Francisco Cofré was critically injured and Sebastian Arizaga and David Bilbao were also wounded.
Investigators say, at the time of the shooting, there were at least 14 other people in the unit with the victims….all of Hispanic descent.
“It was a tremendously horrific scene,” one of the officers who responded to this tragedy said to a local newspaper.
Soon after this tragedy, I had the opportunity to visit that complex, to walk the path that Dannie Baker reportedly walked, I had a chance to “peer through that window”, to meet some of the neighbors. I, along with other Hispanic and Non-Hispanic leaders of the area, also got a chance to meet Francisco, Sebastian, and David.
Thankfully, Dannie Baker was convicted of his murder in March 2011. But, the scars from that night will forever be in the bodies and hearts of the individuals involved. To this date, I stay in touch with Francisco, Sebastian, and David and am impressed by their resilience and kind hearts and how they have continued to live productive lives.
One of Baker’s neighbors, according to on-line and print media reports stated, “He did come up to me one time and asked me if I was ready for the revolution to begin and if I had any immigrants in my house to get them out.”
“Invaders, deport them all, they are destroying our country, etc., etc.”, those too were common words during the time leading up to this tragedy so close to home. Especially during the Presidential election of 2008 and in elections before then.
It is no surprise that those words are again “en vogue” and coming out of the mouths of Presidential candidates and many others that confuse “not being PC” with being insulting, toxic, crass, and prejudiced.
The tongue, it can be used to “praise” and also to “curse.” It seems that in our nation, we have lost the ability to debate respectfully, to discuss issues with those that we may not be totally in agreement with in a calm, respectful, educated manner. Most of us are guilty of this at different levels.
But, when such toxic rhetoric is coming from those that are looking to govern us, to be leaders of our safety and security agencies, to assume positions of great responsibility, it becomes a very dangerous thing. Because that kind of rhetoric is spouted via all means of communication and then, it can get into the heads of individuals like Dannie Baker, it can result in heinous hate crimes like the one he committed
My prayer, my hope is that all of us will ponder such things, that we will consider “taming our tongue” as it relates the issues that confront what I think is a very divided nation and that WE THE PEOPLE will indeed find the strength within us to confront, politely but assertively, whether they are a presidential candidate, a State or local government candidate, or our friends and neighbors, when their words cross the line between decent language and nasty, insulting, and indecent words
I pray that the immigration issue is finally resolved, as they tried in 1986 when Ronald Wilson Reagan and the Congress at that time, had the guts to see this issue of such importance that they at least tried to resolve it. I wonder if any of the candidates on both sides, and the Congress that WE THE PEOPLE decide to vote in later this year, will have the internal fortitude to once and for all, keeping human decency foremost in their minds, solve this issue.
The ignorance and prejudice, of only seeing “the numbers” and not the human beings behind those numbers, the dangers of the toxic rhetoric of that time back in 2008-2009, are in my opinion, what may have caused Dannie Baker to commit that hate crime in Miramar Beach.
I have lived in this area now since 2004 and I know, this is not what our area is about, we are a multi-cultural, extremely generous, mostly God fearing region of our great nation and filled with hard working, freedom loving Americans who will always try to do the right and honorable thing.
I pray that some reading this will understand the importance of “taming their tongues”, of being respectful, and of considering the terrible things that a hate-filled heart can do. May God bless our nation in 2016.
