Nothing Changes

I remember as a kid reading the paper my parents saved from the day I was born.  "Race riots" were the big headline, along with B-52 raids on Vietnam.  I read those articles and I don't remember thinking "those lazy thugs, they're burning their own houses."  But then, I guess I wasn't a conservative.  I realized that the people in those cities must have been really upset about something, and that not all of them were burning things down.

There were more than 150 race riots in 1967.  Many places were like powderkegs, the people trapped in a bad situation, and a spark- then and now- like unjust policing, set things off.

There are underlying issues of poverty, racism, education, etc.  Many people, mainly conservatives but plenty of liberals, say "We have to stop the violence, then we'll deal with the rest of it."  Well, we always stop the violence, but forget about the rest.  And so the headlines are the same today.  History doesn't matter to some people, so we keep repeating it.

Listen- most cops are decent people.  But the bad ones should be held accountable.  Most protestors are decent people.  But the bad ones should be held accountable.  The point here, though, the problem, is that violent protestors are arrested, while violent cops are not.  That's the reason for the protests.  The fact that some people can't see the difference, or choose not to, is a big part of the problem.  Willful ignorance, my old nemesis, contributes to these situations and the fact that they keep happening. 

If someone gets choked to death by police for selling cigarettes, black or white, we should all be upset about it.  They should have to pay a fine, not die.  The problem is, a lot of people aren't upset when it happens to someone who's black.  "Well, he deserved it," when if it happens to a white guy there are always mitigating factors and sympathy.  Which brings us back to "Black lives matter."  Which reminds us that black lives matter, too.  It's not a statement that only black lives matter.  If you think saying that black lives matter is racist, you need to reexamine your life, and not act like someone from "The Wizard of Oz" who is missing both a heart and a brain.