That's the way it's suppose to be?

Elroy McConnell II and his family went on a much needed family to beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.  McConnell, the father of three sons, Elroy III, Nathan and Kelly.  Elroy had arrived from Louisiana with his wife and their just months old son Elroy IV. McConnell wrote on his Facebook page; "They're all really great and unconditionally supportive."  That was on the afternoon of Saturday July 31, 2010.  Sometime that evening McConnell and his three sons went for a guys night out to see the movie Predator.  They never returned.

Around midnight at the corner of Martin Luther King and 22nd Avenue, McConnell was traveling was bound on 22nd avenue when a south bound Chevy Impala, driven by Demetrius Jordan, blew through the intersection at a high rate of speed. The impact of the collision sent the Ford Fusion being driven by McConnell crashing into the sign of the corner Seven Eleven. All four of the McConnell's were pronounced dead at the scene.

Demetrius Jordan, 20, is the second of of four children.  He graduated from St. Petersburg High School  where he played on the marching band drum line and even gave drum lesson to children at Mount Zion Progressive Missionary baptist Church. A college student with no criminal record and described as a quiet and humble man.  He had a life of potential and promise. Now he is facing four counts of manslaughter and his life is in ruins.

I cannot even begin to feel or understand the great sense of loss the McConnell family has experienced.  No way I would even want to feel that.  I am angered by the results of Demetrius Jordan's poor choice to drink and drive. Personally, I feel drunk drivers get off way to easy.  It always seems they can walk away unscathed while the Innocent are carted off draped with a sheet. Personally, I can understand the anger that would want a person to lash out in retaliation to the person or persons who inflicted such loss.  But, that will not right anything that has happened and will not change what has been done. 

And, what about Demetrius Jordan?  A young man of promise and potential.  Now facing unimaginable problems.  There is no way I could even begin to feel what he is going through right now.  He no longer wears a marching band uniform, but a prison jumpsuit. He will not be living in the college dorm, but in a cell block.  He will not be attending college with his friends but will be living in a correctional facility.  He will wear the label of convicted felon for the rest of his life. 

There is no way anyone can tell me that this was suppose to be.  There is no way anyone can tell me that this was fate.  There is no way anyone could tell me that "it was their time".  That is just plain lunacy!! What kind of sick twisted world do people who believe that kind of stupidity live in?  They will try to tell me that it was God's will.  God's will?  What kind of screwed up God to they worship?  This situation had nothing to do with God.  It had everything to do with a choices.  A young man with potential and promise climbed into a car and chose to drive under the influence of alcohol.  That one bad choice set into motion of chain of events that ruined the lives of the McConnell family members, his family, and his own life. 

No.  This was not the way it was suppose to be.  This was not God's will.  This was not fate and wasn't the way it was suppose to be! So, if this event teaches us anything, it is this: your choices not only affect you, they affect others as well.  Four men are dead and three women widowed by a choice made by a stranger.  A family now must now cope with seeing their son in prison and dealing with the public outcry he has caused. Communities, churches, college campuses, and places of business will now feel the loss caused by a bad choice.  Never believe that your life is your own and what you do doesn't affect anyone else.  Don't live your life that way.  Because that is not the way it is suppose to be.