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My heart has been hurting, and if you have love in your heart, you should feel the pain also.

I have had sleepless nights thinking about the senseless killing lately of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

My prayers and heartfelt sympathy go out to these families and other families that are still hurting.

Seeing the video of George Floyd with the policeman’s knee on his neck, and hearing him cry out, “I can’t breathe,” and nothing is done to help him — that was senseless.

You see Floyd dying right in front of your eyes with people watching and hearing him cry out for his mother, although his mother had passed away two years ago.

Other officers stood by and did nothing.

Being a child of God, I have to say something.

Although I do not have a son, others do.

I do have grandsons and granddaughters. I pray to God that my grandsons, as young black men, and all black men and black women will not encounter these acts of police brutality and racism.

We are becoming a country where many people believe it is OK to preach hate and hate your fellow man. Many people believe it is OK to create division among blacks, people of color and white people.

Jesus taught us to love one another.

Matthew 22:37-39 says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

I saw President Donald Trump on national TV standing in front of the house of God holding a Bible after ordering the shooting of people with rubber bullets and tear gas for a photo-op.

No one should use God’s word as a means of degradation.

God will hold me and all others accountable for the things we have done from the day we were born until the day he calls us home. I want to be able to hear God say, “Well done.”

God will not stand for this unrighteousness, and he will take care of it in his own time. You don’t play with God.

Then you see in our commonwealth a governor who has compassion and care for the people as a man of faith, and he gets sued by churches because he’s trying to protect us and keep us healthy. Then he experiences a hate crime at the Capitol, where an effigy is hung on a tree with his face on it. This is not OK.

What can we do in our community to improve our relations and make them better?

We must pray and ask God to change our heart, and we must be committed to change.

We must be able to sit down and discuss the issues that need to be addressed from both perspectives.

We need to understand how people are hurting, how they are feeling, what they are thinking, so we can address the issues and underlying issues that need to be resolved.

I am willing, and I hope others are willing to sit down to voice concerns, listen and be committed to resolving issues in this community.

We no longer have the Rev. J.W. Jones and the Rev. H.E. Baker to lead this community. These pastors cared about their community and its people.

The torch has been passed to us, and all of us must be committed to work together.

I am pledging to be part of the solution and not the problem. What about you?

William Baker

Winchester