This is difficult. We are here again.
Half of the conversation is about the response to a tragedy. Not the protest, but the resulting turmoil: riots, looting, etc. Most definitely not the cause, the root.
The message is lost. And I am sadder for it.
We, here, are so fortunate, even those friends among us that can't put together an affluent rig. Some here debate Amps that amount to 2 months income for others, if not more!!!
Even starting
HERE ON A DIFFERENT THREAD. I added my own 2¢ at post 91:
Please:
What Is The Message? What is not being discussed? Why is it so hard for many of us to grok that the recurrence of these horrid acts by members of the Law Enforcement Community and our society as a whole are part of a much larger problem? It's not just that... but the recurrence of social unrest, protest, then riots....
How many here had to have "The Talk" with our parents? And no, I'm not talking about knocking up our high school girlfriend.
My Wife and Brother-In-Law did. My Father-In-Law did. Many of my former friends in High School did...
This is the talk about how to behave when a Police Officer stops you.
So why the anger? Why the frustration? Is it just because a Black Man was killed during a Police Intervention? Again? Yes, of course. But also, let's remember the root of what led to this.
Since this is an Audio Forum, I'm going to use Audio to tell the story. Please, Billie:
We need a paradigm shift to occur. That is not easy, nor fun. That phrase was coined by an author writing about the Copernican Revolution and all that it entailed; shifting the worldview of religious control and geocentrism to a more scientific view of the Solar System with the Sun at the center.
What will it take to make us all start acting like humans, together. (We are all
animals, after all.) This insistence by so many that we are different needs to stop. That we treat others differently by look is just astoundingly ridiculous and petty.
One last point, as I seek to look for roots of this problem. I know
Officer is not a shortening of
Overseer. However, KRS One had a point and describes it well in
Sound Of Da Police:
If you follow all the way to the third verse, you also see reference to what I mentioned earlier about
the Talk.
Regardless, for centuries... Four Centuries ago, in fact!... even before America existed as a nation, we had racial inequity on this land as a root of what we know today! In 1619, the first slaves arrived in the British Colony of Jamestown. I would contend that we are still not past this part of our history, and as long as we stay the course... it will be a long while more before we may pass beyond. With Slavery and the almost continual subjugation, denigration, cultural dismissal, and denial of basic rights and fair treatment, through the 1960s and beyond, of a group of people based solely on the color of their skin, we as a nation have committed an almost continual crime.
The overseer and the officer shared something in common, which allowed them almost unassailable dominance over another person, however they might choose to use it. This following article details two specific cases and how Qualified Immunity has been used to protect what by all manner of common sense, is outright criminal behavior perpetrated upon another human being.
Michael Slager, the former North Charleston, South Carolina police officer killed an unarmed man and then attempted to frame the victim, will not be convicted of murder. Nor is he likely to be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Slager’s jury deadlocked because a single member of the...
libertarianinstitute.org
It is time for this to end. All of this. We must not keep on the road we have been on since 1619. Instead of complaining about Riots, Chaos, and the people that feed on that, let us instead turn out attention to the Root and stop this at the source.
We cannot undo the past, but we can act and behave differently now, and everyday hereafter.
We are all humans, together on this rock, traveling around the Sun. Let's celebrate life together, rather than the things that make us different. Let's respect those around us as fellow and family, not treat them instantly as different and inconvenient neighbors. It's quite easy, in fact, to do so.
That might countenance a paradigm shift in our society. It may begin to redress the sins of the past. At the very least, it will not aggravate the situation further. Much like healing in our body, when you address the cause of the inflammation, the root, then the healing can begin.
Best to you all,
R