I only raised my gun...

The History Channel recently aired a miniseries that completely captured my attention...I honestly would have missed it because The History Channel is not something I usually watch (I'm more of a Bravo girl)... But I've gotten addicted to Pawn Stars since all of the shows that I watch/have on in the background are on hiatus...

The Hatfields & McCoys was a mini series depicting the epic feud between these two families...I was captured by this!  There was so much rich storytelling & pieces that are telling to the human condition...Did I mention, I loved it?  There may be a few posts coming from it (no promises...), but one character that captured my attention was Johnse Hatfield.

Let's get it out there first...The actor who played Johnse, Matt Barr, is incredibly good looking...In all honesty, that was probably the reason that my attention was captured.  Well, that and the Romeo & Juliet love story between Johnse & Roseanna McCoy.

Johnse was someone who never seemed to fit in with his family...He was a lover and not a fighter...He was angry at the McCoys only because his family was...He was far too trusting...He just didn't quite fit, even though he tried so hard to.

In several instances where McCoys were murdered at the hands of Hatfields, when Johnse was present, he argued over and over... "I only raised my gun, I didn't shoot." or "I missed on purpose."

It seems like that should be a good enough explanation or a cleansing of wrongdoing... But of course, it isn't.  As Martin Luther King Jr. has famously said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

I think there are times when we are all victim to this..."I didn't actually participate...I was only there."  "They did all the talking...I didn't agree with them."  But the truth is, our presence & our silence speaks volumes even if we don't want it to.

Does Johnse saying, "I didn't shoot" or "I missed on purpose" make him feel better?  It might...It might make us feel better to say those things too.  But it doesn't make those who have been wronged feel better...

May we all find the courage to be able to not raise our guns at all...Or to tell others to knock it off...May our silence not be a form of oppression.