Rev. Randle’s Message: Violence is like cancer

Only three people in the United States have honored holidays: George Washington, Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther King Jr.
No one person celebrates the three holidays the same.
On Monday, the United States celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Sunday would have been King’s 94th birthday. He was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39 in Memphis, Tennessee.
King’s legacy is that he led a campaign of non-violent protests and civil disobedience in the struggle to end discrimination, including racial segregation, in the US in the 1950s and 1960s
On Monday morning, the annual Stump Service took place at the intersection of I.J. Joiner and Greene Street in Abbeville.
Every Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, a different preacher gives a speech to about 50 residents who attend. The service has been taking place for more than 30 years.
On Monday, Rev. Allen Randle Sr. of Lighthouse Missionary Baptist Church in Abbeville spoke at the Stump Service. His message was on one of the things Dr. King wanted to stop - violence.
“We walked. We sang. The question is, where do we go from here?” asked Randle. “I look at the violence here; it is just like cancer. It is painful, and it is terminal.
“When you look around at our community and our schools, there is nothing but pain and death. The question is, where do we go from here? We have not found a cure for cancer, but there is a cure for crime and violence committed in our community, home, and schools.
“That cure came 2,000 years ago. In the passion of Jesus Christ. The question again is where to go from here?”
Pastor Wayne Landry followed Rev. Randle’s words with his own words.
“We ought to be sick and tired of being sick and tired,” said Pastor Landry. “With all of the shooting and crime. I am tired of it.”
After the Stump Servic, a motor pool went to downtown Abbeville for a ceremony in front of the war memorial.
The honor guard attended along with Abbeville residents, including Abbeville Mayor Roslyn White, councilperson Terry Broussard, police jurors Ron Darby, Liz Touchet and police juror president Jason Picard.
Terry Bessard, who recently passed away, was honored at the war memorial by the police jury president Jason Picard. Bessard, some 20 years ago, was the first African American police jury and was also a former member of the National Guard.
Picard presented a family member of Bessard with a plaque in honor of his commitment to the Abbeville community.
Wilfred Sereal, Bessard’s first cousin, accepted the award.
Also honored earlier in the day was Gerilyn Thomas.