A Bad Day for America.....
I was making plans to go to Put in Bay today. If you're not familiar with the area, Put in Bay is a resort town on a nearby Lake Erie island. Put in Bay is a great place to relax, have fun, and enjoy summer. But then one thing popped up, then another, and my plans got postponed. Then I saw the headlines, and I wasn't even in the mood to have fun. This is a troubling day. One where the aftershocks will reverberate for a long time.
The background, briefly, is this. Yesterday, in Minnesota, an African American was pulled over by police for a broken tail light, One bad decision led to another bad decision and he was shot and killed. Later yesterday in Louisiana, an African American was killed by police, in an apparent overreaction because he was carrying a gun.
African American communities across the country were outraged as the killings were broadcast on social media. There was a peaceful protest in Dallas, Texas. Police were in the area to ensure it was a peaceful protest. Then shooting broke out. The result was 5 dead police officers in Dallas. Seven other officers were wounded. The suspected sniper said he just wanted to kill white people. Especially white police officers.
There have been many high profile cases over the last year or so where African American have been killed in situations that escalated from seemingly simple situations. The "Black Lives Matter" movement has been gaining momentum and attention.
But this is a situation where absolutely nobody wins. Black America is a loser. The Law Enforcement community is a loser. But the biggest loser is all of America.
Spoiler Alert: If you are expecting me to come up with some pearls of wisdom to understand this and provide any perspective - sorry. Don't have any today. I'm mad, I'm sad, I'm frustrated, I'm disillusioned, I'm worried.
America seems to be sliding back to 1968.
I was just an impressionable teenager in 1968. One of my favorite TV shows was the evening news. That year watching the news was like watching a fireworks show. Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Boom! Rioting in the streets. Bang! Robert Kennedy was assassinated while running for President.Pow! Black U.S. Olympic athletes protested. Bang! Vietnam fractures american youth. Boom! Oh yeah. We also landed a man on the moon.
But the point is nobody trusted anybody back then. Black people didn't trust whites. White people got nervous around black people. Adults didn't understand "today's youth". And the kids sure as hell didn't trust people over 30. Women were totally dismissed in anything that mattered. America was fractured into various groups or subcultures.
Somehow, and I don't know exactly how, things seemed to get better. It literally took decades. Maybe it was education. Maybe it was improvement in the economy. Maybe because of communication and technology. Who knows. But over time, it seemed like things were improving. Mixed neighborhoods were more common. mixed groups at parties even emerged. Women even were taken seriously. Being naive, I personally thought the election of Barack Obama was a watershed moment. A Black American was elected President. Surely our society would change. But I guess I was wrong. Racially, on basic rights, things are as bad as ever.
Now I'm not a black american. Never have been. So I'm not going to speak for black America or offer advice. I could warn people to avoid a potentially dangerous situation. But incidents can pop up out of anything. I could call for better police training and community involvement. But I'm not the person that has to make split second life or death decisions. I'm not the person you call to protect your family.
How do we move past this period? How do we heal? It won't be by anything the government does. It won't be by anything any special interest group does. It will be when common people talk to each other, laugh and cry and care about each other. It will take time. But that work won't even be televised, (or streamed).
I was making plans to go to Put in Bay today. If you're not familiar with the area, Put in Bay is a resort town on a nearby Lake Erie island. Put in Bay is a great place to relax, have fun, and enjoy summer. But then one thing popped up, then another, and my plans got postponed. Then I saw the headlines, and I wasn't even in the mood to have fun. This is a troubling day. One where the aftershocks will reverberate for a long time.
The background, briefly, is this. Yesterday, in Minnesota, an African American was pulled over by police for a broken tail light, One bad decision led to another bad decision and he was shot and killed. Later yesterday in Louisiana, an African American was killed by police, in an apparent overreaction because he was carrying a gun.
 |
| Shooting was posted on Facebook. |
 |
| Police in the crosshairs. |
There have been many high profile cases over the last year or so where African American have been killed in situations that escalated from seemingly simple situations. The "Black Lives Matter" movement has been gaining momentum and attention.
But this is a situation where absolutely nobody wins. Black America is a loser. The Law Enforcement community is a loser. But the biggest loser is all of America.
Spoiler Alert: If you are expecting me to come up with some pearls of wisdom to understand this and provide any perspective - sorry. Don't have any today. I'm mad, I'm sad, I'm frustrated, I'm disillusioned, I'm worried.
America seems to be sliding back to 1968.
 |
| Protests in the 1968 Olympics, |
But the point is nobody trusted anybody back then. Black people didn't trust whites. White people got nervous around black people. Adults didn't understand "today's youth". And the kids sure as hell didn't trust people over 30. Women were totally dismissed in anything that mattered. America was fractured into various groups or subcultures.
Somehow, and I don't know exactly how, things seemed to get better. It literally took decades. Maybe it was education. Maybe it was improvement in the economy. Maybe because of communication and technology. Who knows. But over time, it seemed like things were improving. Mixed neighborhoods were more common. mixed groups at parties even emerged. Women even were taken seriously. Being naive, I personally thought the election of Barack Obama was a watershed moment. A Black American was elected President. Surely our society would change. But I guess I was wrong. Racially, on basic rights, things are as bad as ever.
Now I'm not a black american. Never have been. So I'm not going to speak for black America or offer advice. I could warn people to avoid a potentially dangerous situation. But incidents can pop up out of anything. I could call for better police training and community involvement. But I'm not the person that has to make split second life or death decisions. I'm not the person you call to protect your family.
How do we move past this period? How do we heal? It won't be by anything the government does. It won't be by anything any special interest group does. It will be when common people talk to each other, laugh and cry and care about each other. It will take time. But that work won't even be televised, (or streamed).
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