Emm
I read your comment to my post "Unfinished Business" in its entirety and wanted to respond to some of the things you said in a separate post as I think it would be beneficial for my readers.
First of all I want to assure you that I am indeed a Christian who believes Almighty God grants forgiveness through Christ to repentant sinners (1John 1:9, Acts 4:12, Psalm 103:12). I am thankful that He chose to have mercy on me, a sinner. The wages of sin is death thus we are all condemned unless we, through no merit of our own, have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23; 3:10-28; Ephesians 2:8-9). Do I believe God saves liars, adulterers, murderers and thieves alike? Absolutely. Has God chosen to save Ramon Salcido? I haven't a clue and have no reason to speculate one way or the other. My only familiarity with the man stems from his crimes in April 1989. I will say this though. It is as easy to confess Christ while sitting on death row as it is while standing in front of a congregation- our words come cheaply but the Word says we will know people by their fruit (John 3:20-21; Galatians 5:19-24). From your post it seems you are both familiar with Ramon and an advocate of his. Is that a fair assessment?
Secondly, I want to assure you that I am wise enough to recognize that it was not coincidental that Carmina appeared on ABC's 20/20 at the same time her book was being released. I am not naïve enough to believe that everything I see on television is true. That is inconsequential though as I think you have missed the point of my post. I was not actively supporting Carmina, endorsing her book or anything of the kind. I was addressing the impact that my prior occupation had on me, and the importance of a biblical worldview. That was my agenda. Nothing more. With that hopefully I have made my foundations clear for you and I would now like to address some of your comments and I have some questions for you.
Is it really true that you equate 20/20 airing Carmina's version of her story as horrific? Perhaps you didn't mean to but it seems you compare Ramon's murders with airing a television show where a woman chronicles a terrible event the details of which may not have been accurate. I fail to see how the two things can be compared even if you are right in your assertion that Carmina has been incorrect or willfully fabricated what she said. Let me be clear that I do not condone lying. It is also a sin. Describing ABC's actions in airing their interview as horrifying and Ramon Salcido's murders as horrifying is inconceivable to me. There is no way to equate the two.
What concerns me more is your attempt to make excuses for Ramon Salcido's behavior the day he murdered seven people and attempted the murder of two others. None of us get through life without scars, trauma and disappointment. When you squeeze a sponge and dirty water comes out of it, it is not the pressure on the sponge that made the water dirty. The water was dirty to begin with. When a man goes on a cocaine binge and kills- it is not the cocaine that caused the murder. The lack of sleep and cocaine may have made it easier for him to slash the throats of three defenseless children, shoot and stab the others but it was not the cause. Whether or not his wife had deceived him was irrelevant. Emm, circumstances are not the cause of behavior; they are the context where the content of our hearts and our character are revealed.
I have no desire to check into Carmina's social networking on line and I am in no way attempting to defend or deny your accusations of her lack of veracity. Wondering for 20 years what had become of her does not translate in wanting to be familiar with her. For whatever reason God used the 20/20 program Carmina was on to show me that I had really not dealt with some traumas in my life. Working in public safety has changed some things about me that I need to be aware of and to work on. It's all part of the sanctification process and growing in Christ. It was a chance for me to look biblically at things in my past and realize I had some unfinished business.
Thank you for commenting, Emm and I hope you read this response in its entirety.
-rosemarie
I read your comment to my post "Unfinished Business" in its entirety and wanted to respond to some of the things you said in a separate post as I think it would be beneficial for my readers.
First of all I want to assure you that I am indeed a Christian who believes Almighty God grants forgiveness through Christ to repentant sinners (1John 1:9, Acts 4:12, Psalm 103:12). I am thankful that He chose to have mercy on me, a sinner. The wages of sin is death thus we are all condemned unless we, through no merit of our own, have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23; 3:10-28; Ephesians 2:8-9). Do I believe God saves liars, adulterers, murderers and thieves alike? Absolutely. Has God chosen to save Ramon Salcido? I haven't a clue and have no reason to speculate one way or the other. My only familiarity with the man stems from his crimes in April 1989. I will say this though. It is as easy to confess Christ while sitting on death row as it is while standing in front of a congregation- our words come cheaply but the Word says we will know people by their fruit (John 3:20-21; Galatians 5:19-24). From your post it seems you are both familiar with Ramon and an advocate of his. Is that a fair assessment?
Secondly, I want to assure you that I am wise enough to recognize that it was not coincidental that Carmina appeared on ABC's 20/20 at the same time her book was being released. I am not naïve enough to believe that everything I see on television is true. That is inconsequential though as I think you have missed the point of my post. I was not actively supporting Carmina, endorsing her book or anything of the kind. I was addressing the impact that my prior occupation had on me, and the importance of a biblical worldview. That was my agenda. Nothing more. With that hopefully I have made my foundations clear for you and I would now like to address some of your comments and I have some questions for you.
Is it really true that you equate 20/20 airing Carmina's version of her story as horrific? Perhaps you didn't mean to but it seems you compare Ramon's murders with airing a television show where a woman chronicles a terrible event the details of which may not have been accurate. I fail to see how the two things can be compared even if you are right in your assertion that Carmina has been incorrect or willfully fabricated what she said. Let me be clear that I do not condone lying. It is also a sin. Describing ABC's actions in airing their interview as horrifying and Ramon Salcido's murders as horrifying is inconceivable to me. There is no way to equate the two.
What concerns me more is your attempt to make excuses for Ramon Salcido's behavior the day he murdered seven people and attempted the murder of two others. None of us get through life without scars, trauma and disappointment. When you squeeze a sponge and dirty water comes out of it, it is not the pressure on the sponge that made the water dirty. The water was dirty to begin with. When a man goes on a cocaine binge and kills- it is not the cocaine that caused the murder. The lack of sleep and cocaine may have made it easier for him to slash the throats of three defenseless children, shoot and stab the others but it was not the cause. Whether or not his wife had deceived him was irrelevant. Emm, circumstances are not the cause of behavior; they are the context where the content of our hearts and our character are revealed.
I have no desire to check into Carmina's social networking on line and I am in no way attempting to defend or deny your accusations of her lack of veracity. Wondering for 20 years what had become of her does not translate in wanting to be familiar with her. For whatever reason God used the 20/20 program Carmina was on to show me that I had really not dealt with some traumas in my life. Working in public safety has changed some things about me that I need to be aware of and to work on. It's all part of the sanctification process and growing in Christ. It was a chance for me to look biblically at things in my past and realize I had some unfinished business.
Thank you for commenting, Emm and I hope you read this response in its entirety.
-rosemarie
Comments
My involvement with Ramon started 2 days after he was returned from Mexico with Sonoma County detectives in the plane of Charles Shultz. I volunteered Spanish translation for the public defender office.
Atty Melvin Belli had stated to Bony Saludes a reporter for the Democrat Press, "There isn't one bad thing that anyone can say about this guy other than those few hours in the morning of April 14, 1989. And, frankly, I LIKE THIS GUY". That is verifiable in microfish for the year of 1989.
Carmina came to Ramon in 2005, asking him for 18,000 for a mobile dog grooming business/van. He gave the money to her from him and his christian friends.Then with her half sister Maria Chrystal, Ramon paid for both tickets to go visit his family in 2007. While Carmina was there, she spent no time with her relatives leaving Maria Chrystal alone with them. Ramon insisted she return to the US immediately and sent them return tickets. At that time she became upset with her father because he tried to advise her of the poison of alcohol and drugs.
Carmina turned agaist Ramon because she did not want to hear from him about how her private life was ruining her future.
Frankly and honestly, she did not want to write this book, saying to many and her father she didn't remember anything at all prior to those 3 hours or for years after.
Consequently, the only information that she received was from her money hungry young friends in the Sonoma County, who gave her the details of what only they thought to be the truth, from what they read in the papers, other than detective Brown and her Dr. at the hospital in Petaluma.
Ramon has confessed his sins to God, prayed for forgiveness from all who were involved and their families, and he is now Reverend Ramon Salcido in and out of the prision. He has a Ministry for children who have no toys at Christmas or birthdays, in assistance with Sister Kay Lamon of Alameda. In addition, he has written and recorded a Christian CD and a cassette that was sung with many children, Ramon and a Mexican group called "Los Tucanes de Tijuana". The jackets give tribute to Ramon, sites him as writer, and has pictures of him with the children who sang.
I too was very worried about Carmina all these years. We believed that she was adopted by a very decent family back east and that she would be raised to never know what had happened years ago..until she found a hidden box that they kept in a closet, labeled Carmina and her family. How did the think this would not have been found by her?
I am proud that Carmina is making attempts to continue her life the best she can. AND, I am happy that she feels that she can ask Ramon for financial support to do just that, and that he makes money from the sell of his beautiful drawings of our Lord Jesus Christ and of other things that have quite a demand. All of that money goes to his ministry to help people in need, children, and now to help Carmina and Maria Chrystal in however they may need it.
I am not just about trying to "defend" Ramon, what I am relieved about is that he has made peace with GOD and has done something with what life he has left to try and help people. This, all of the haters of him do not know about, but he has thru the years, taken out his old typewriter and in words from his heart written about what had happened and his unpremeditated reasons for it, how it has brought him to serve our Lord, and apologies to many of the police force, courts and his attornies, people involved, his daughters Carmina and Maria, and to everyone. He will have this given to someone to put together a story of his life in his own words when the day after comes his execution or death.
Once again thank you rosemarie, and God Bless you for all of your beautiful blogs that I have so for read on your site. You are an excellent writer. Emm
let me try my hotmail acct.
Thank you for reading and your kind comments.