Yesterday, in Toledo, OH, lightning struck a mural that honored George Floyd, destroying the mural.
To help drive home how fascinating this occurrence is, consider the following facts:
- The weather was sunny, with intermittent clouds. There may have been a short, random thunderstorm in the afternoon.
- People reported the lighting strike, and a weather service did confirm that lightning struck in that area.
- The photo above shows ground that’s dry, so if it rained, it didn’t rain for long.
- The lightning didn’t strike nearby metal poles or trees, and even the metal gutters along the roof seems mostly unaffected. The lightning struck the bricks.
- Near the center of the damage was an image of George Floyd’s face, suggesting that the lightning strike likely hit the face directly.
- Artist David Ross, contrary to the sentiments of Kaitlin Durbin (below), vouched for the structural integrity of the wall, saying that there were parts of the wall he couldn’t remove because of how strong the wall was. He was the artist who worked on the mural.
It’s been suggested that the lightning strike was a product of divine intervention, pointing out the circumstances surrounding the event, and that people were making an idol out of George Floyd.
While one might defend against this by saying that they weren’t treating George Floyd as though he were a god, that doesn’t mean they weren’t committing idolatry. What idolatry is would be ascribing a disproportionate amount of honor on something or someone upon which it’s not appropriate. And when it comes to George Floyd, that’s certainly what happened.
George Floyd was just a man. And as a man, he was no exemplar of virtue. Prior to his death, George Floyd was arrested nine times, one of which for armed robbery of a family wherein Floyd himself pointed a gun at a pregnant woman, to which he pled guilty. During his final arrest, Floyd was doing a speedball, and had just before attempted to operate a motor vehicle, which could have killed someone. The arrest was over a counterfeit $20 bill, and during the arrest, Floyd had attempted to conceal a lethal dose of fentanyl by eating it, to tragic results.
If that’s the kind of guy you’d want to build a statue for, you’ve lost your way, it’s as simple as that.
In any case, there’s no shortage of people out there who should rethink who their heroes and role-models are. Perhaps a little electricity is what it would take to jump-start their thinking.
Magnetricity 