Dallas… I hate—hated—Dallas since November 22nd,
1963. Over the past 52 plus years I have
had absolutely no use for that city.
Even worse are the Dallas Cowboys.
I hate that team more than God hates sin! The only good thing I can say about it is
that its name was used as the title of a great evening soap opera in the 1980’s.
However, things started to
change last Thursday evening with the killing of five police officers. Folks were peacefully marching to protest the
two black men shot to death by cops in Louisiana and Minnesota over the preceding
two days, when a black who apparently saw himself as an avenger took it upon
himself to wreak vengeance on the police by shooting eleven police officers,
killing five, who were monitoring the peaceful protest. For this reason, my bitter feelings about
Dallas are starting to ease. One
possible reason—beyond the policemen who were shot to death—is the way their
police chief, David Brown, has comported himself. He has had more than anyone’s share of grief,
having lost his brother, his son, and his partner to gunfire. Despite these tragedies, perhaps because of
them, he has become a rock to whom all should look up to and admire for his
strength of character.
The recent shooting deaths
of two African Americans is a continuance of what seems to have become the norm
in American society. More and more, it
seems, unarmed blacks are being murdered by the police while armed whites are
being arrested with few, if any, shots being fired. Take for instance, the death of Eric Garner
of Staten Island, NY who was choked to death for selling cigarettes on a
sidewalk; or Tamir Rice, a 12 year old who was “armed” with a toy gun in
Cleveland; or Freddie Gray, who was given a rough ride despite a broken back;
or Walter Scott, who was shot in the back in North Charleston, SC.
Compare these with the
arrests of Dylann Roof, who murdered nine African Americans at a prayer service
in Charleston, SC; Jason Dalton, who murdered six people in Kalamazoo, MI; Eric
Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympics bomber; or even Ted Kaczinski, the Unibomber, These men are all lily white, yet they were
arrested and not shot to death by the police.
Unfortunately, there is a
strong specter of institutional racism inherent in American society--some may
call it “white privilege”—but it is as prevalent in society as is baseball and
politics. When a policeman approaches a
car with a white driver, he is not as apprehensive as he would be when
approaching a car with a black driver.
Not knowing if the black person is armed, the adrenaline gets to pumping
and the tension rises. Stopping a white
driver, on the other hand, the officer tends not to be as concerned for his own
safety.
We MUST become aware of
our own humanity and do away with the confrontational attitudes that we foist
on others all the time. It can be a “F*ck
you” and flipping the bird at a discourteous driver or telling someone with
whom we disagree to kiss our ass! The
problem today, as I see it, is that we have lost the compassion we felt for
others, such as we did when I was growing up in the ‘50’s. There is way too much bigotry in today’s American
society. Sure, there was much bigotry
and prejudice in those days. The civil rights
movement of the 1950’s and ‘60’s did much to advance the rights of minorities
that we white folks took for granted. I
never thought I’d ever see an African American president, but here we are in
the final year of Barack Obama’s second term.
Not all that much has seemed to change in the past 60 years. The latent bigotry that had been festering
broke forth in all its ugliness. It is
as if the light in a dark room was turned on and suddenly all the cockroaches
became visible.
What the future holds, I
know not. I can only hope that whatever
it is our children and grandchildren can handle it better than we have.
