Proclamation: Letter to All Leaders

In 1517, Martin Luther, Priest and Scholar nailed what appeared to be then an  infamous 95 theses paper to doors of the Catholic church in  Wittenberg, Germany,  that later would begin the Protestant Reformation.

Nearly 502 years later, I find myself writing as an Ambassador of Peace a letter and proclamation to ALL leaders. This letter may not be nailed to your perspective doors like Martin Luther did in 1517, but may these words be nailed to your heart. May these words cause you to not only think, but to evaluate your purpose in becoming an example of nobility for others to follow. 

As a leader, it is vital to society as a whole to listen to the voice of the voiceless. Those who are unable to speak for themselves. 

Many leaders have forgotten why they were chosen to serve in the capacity in which they do.  The love of money has become the bottom line instead of the love of people. 

Jesus spoke against money changers when he “…went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Matt. 21:12-13

Sadly, some who have been placed in leadership continued to make the Father’s house a den of thieves and as a result the people suffer. 

You may be thinking this only applies to the church. No my friend read closer. 

America who has been an example of freedom echoing around the world. In its Pledge we recite the words in closing, “…one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

God’s house, America, is a house (Nation) of prayer, but it has been made a den of thieves. 

America is a land that has flows with milk and honey, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. 

Has America not learned from its past mistakes? 

If our leaders continue to allow the people’s voice to fall upon deaf ears, calamity will befall our nation like never before. 

God’s people are hurting and hurting people hurt people. 

When will the hurting stop? 

Children are dying, mothers are crying, people are hopeless, suicide is a norm, communities are crumbling, distrust and disdain for our leaders is on the rise. 

Leaders are ordained by God. 

What kind of leader are you? 

Are you one where the people sit back and shake their heads in disbelief or are you one who puts the cares of the people first?

A true leader seeks guidance from the heavenly Father. The Father knows what His people need. Why? Because He listens.

Are you seeking the Father or do you have your own agenda? 

It’s time for our Leaders to get back to prayer. Not superficial prayer like, I hope I get a good parking space, but prayer in which you bombard the heavens for Godly answers that will assist you in doing what is right.

It’s time for our Leaders to reintroduce themselves to the God of our forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob (Israel), the I AM THAT I AM. When you get to know “That God” then you will understand who you are in Him and what He wants to do in and through you.

It’s “That God” that knew you before you were formed in the belly of your mother’s womb and it is “That God” who will show you the plans He has for you and for His people. 

If the head (leaders) are broken, so shall the body, and a nation divided will fall. 

When leaders are able to tap into the true source of their strength, they will not only be able to lead victoriously but see through the eyes of God the love He shares for all. 

May you rise in truth that can only be found in Him and it’s His truth that shall set the captives free. 

Edie Darling

Ambassador of Peace

Bridging the Gap between Community & Law Enforcement Relations

As one who grew up in a city where community and law enforcement were not friends, I got to see firsthand the fear individuals faced as the police road through our neighborhoods.

Unlike many children who were taught, if you see a police officer go up and shake his hand. We were taught to run and run for your dear lives. They are not your friends. They will tell you to sit down, shut up and call you every name but your name all the while using racial epithets to describe you while taking off to jail.

Growing up, I heard the stories my mom and dad shared of maltreatment and police brutality of people of color, of the dog bites, water hoses, lynching’s and other horrific killings.

As a young child, I remember my mom crying and screaming, “No Lord!” as she peered out the living window telling a police officer to stop kicking a young black man who was up against our fence.  Seeing my mother’s tears, screams and fear in her eyes only solidified the horrors she experienced in her lifetime.

These stories and more made it difficult to understand why my mother would call the police after my two brothers were robbed outside of our home. In an instant, all the stories I heard, began to race through my mind and all I could say was, “No!” as my mother dialed 911.

I stood beside my mother as the police officer, a young Caucasian male, walked through the door. My mother escorted him to our dinner table and offered him something to drink. He listened to my brothers tell their account of the incident. He made no promises, but closed with, “We will do everything we can to find the people who did this.”

As he got ready to walk out of the house, he shock everyone’s hands. When he shock mine, it was at that moment I felt a transference of power so to speak, as if he were passing the torch onto me. After he left, I looked at my mother and told her, “I know what I want to be when I grow up.” She said, “What’s that baby?” I said, “I want to be a police officer.” She said, “No, no baby, you want to be a nurse.”

In a twinkling of an eye, my whole view of law enforcement went out the window and the trajectory of my life had changed forever. I wanted to do what he had done, changed lives for the better.

Needless to say, I didn’t become a nurse my momma wanted. I’ve dedicated my life servicing others, as a veteran police officer helping, having a radio show host that focused on bridging the gap between community and law enforcement relations, by bringing them together at a round table of peace.

You see, it is possible for community and law enforcement to not only be friends, but to work together collectively, to see things as the community sees it and to address the problems that impact them because every community is not the same.

You just have to be willing to just listen without judgement.

Listen to the heart of those who need you the most. We are not the enemy. This is a not we verses them mentality.

One person’s wrongs does not reflect the whole community.  

We just want to live peacefully just like you.

A community will have your back if they know you are not trying to shoot them in theirs.

It’s time to right the wrongs of the past. It’s possible. It starts with communication. A willingness to hear it from both sides.

Will there be pain at first? Absolutely! But as you talk, you begin to heal.

“For blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” 

Edie Darling – Ambassador of Peace

I don’t need to see or provide you with statistics of the ever increasing number of deaths concerning our youth, who are senselessly dying in the streets daily by their own hand and unjustly by others. 

As a Spiritual Leader, I see the inconsolable mothers who lay in bed sleepless lamenting in pain and anguish over the death of children. Like our Heavenly Father, I hear their blood cry out from the ground who lie as waste in the streets. 

How do we stop the senseless deaths of our children?

Nations have to identify, acknowledge and uproot the wrongs of the past. 

What do I mean?

What you are seeing is the result of a curse brought upon us. The curse began when Cain, the first reported murderer in scripture, killed his brother out of mere jealousy. When asked by the Heavenly Father, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain said, “I don’t know” “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Instead of acknowledging his wrong doing, he arrogantly deflected the question back to the Father, and because of his unwillingness to own his actions, he brought upon him his own demise. 

The Lord said to Cain, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” Abel’s curse has resonated throughout time. 

How does this relate to America today? 

In order to see how this relates to America today, you have to be willing to go back in time. A time when people knew who they were and where they came from. They had a sense of belonging, they had a family, belonged to tribes, spoke their own unique tongues and tilled their own lands.

America stole land that wasn’t theirs to own, leaving a people to become wonderers in their own land and for over 200 plus years America, like many countries, robbed individuals of their identities. 

People were uprooted from their families, their lands, sense of belonging, in order to build a nation that would never receive them as their own. They would become the walking dead, hopeless, voiceless, and demoralized to a mere nothing. Structure and engrained to believe they were nothing and they were never going to be nothing. Nothing from nothing equals nothing. 

America is reaping what it has sown.

This upheaval has now weaved its way into the moral fiber of the original family structure of America that they never expected.  It’s like that old saying, “The chicken has come home to roost.” 

The intended genocide of groups of people has created a ripple effect that is impacting this nation and nations abroad where the hurting keep hurting the hurting. 

Families are scattered, fathers are killing sons, mothers are killing daughter and children are killing parents and children are killing children. Hatred has unleashed itself like a vengeance around this land.    

A fellow colleague told me the story of the African juvenile bull elephants. He said, the juvenile bull elephant will wreak havoc, destruction and ciaos if it’s not guided by the adult male bull elephant. They then compared the juvenile bull elephants to our youth today who wreak havoc with the same intensity in our communities today. 

Because family dynamics have been torn away at the seams, there’s been an out of order. Women have had to step into roles they were never intended to be in. 

They’ve had to become both mom and dad. 

Do you see the correlation of how the impact of slavery played on men today? 

Men who were taken away from the families leaving mothers to care for their children alone, created a generational curse that passed down for centuries. 

This curse has made it easy for men today to walk away, allowing the mother to carry full load and responsibility parenting children alone.

How can a mother be both mom and dad? It’s not in her DNA. 

This problem has become a National State of Crisis. 

There is no true family structure to follow. Men have forgotten how to be men. Women have forgotten how to be women and children are no longer able to be children. 

How do we right the wrongs of the past?

Acknowledge the past sins, ask for forgiveness and break the generational curse.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

We are God’s people. We have the power to break the curse of sin. The God of our forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob desires to put the broken pieces back together. 

“But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I (am) the Lord.”

Edie Darling – Ambassador of Peace