Why? Because it’s a no-win situation no matter which side you’re on. What I will talk about is the insanity that seems to be running rampant.
THE POLICE.
What is wrong with some of our police departments??? What century are they living in? When I was with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department the instructors always hammered away at us with the rules of engagement or more specifically, when deadly force can be applied, if at all. And this was over thirty years ago. We learned that, in spite of what you see on TV or in the movies, you NEVER shoot at a fleeing suspect and you NEVER shoot at a fleeing vehicle, the key word being “fleeing”. To all of you John Wayne and Clint Eastwood fans (and I’m one of them) out there, when a suspect is running away from you the element of danger is diminished so that there is no reason to shoot them in the back. If you shoot at a fleeing vehicle (like you see on TV or in the movies) and you hit the driver or disable the vehicle there is a good chance that it will injure or possibly kill innocent bystanders.
And now some politicians, it’s always the politicians, want to defund and in some instances do away with their police departments. Never mind the politicians. What do the people want? Should this happen it would create new opportunities for the criminal element in our country who will now be able to make a decent living without being harassed and unfairly discriminated against by law enforcement.
REPARATIONS.
There is talk, mostly talk so far, about making reparations to the descendants of slaves because of the abuses their ancestors endured under slavery. I’m curious as to how this would work out since none of us were alive when these offenses were committed and none of those slaves who were offended are alive today. And those states that had slavery were only the Southern states, those below the Mason Dixon Line. The Northern states were the ones that fought against slavery as well as to preserve the union of the United States. More Americans died in that war than in all of our other wars combined. It was called the Civil War. If such a reparations law was passed, who would pay for it? The descendants of the plantation owners? The Southern states or the Northern states who fought against slavery? Everyone? And who would determine who the beneficiaries are? And how much would they be entitled to? I’m not going to talk about the other ethnic or religious groups who had to endure even greater abuses. But what about the American Indian? If there is one group that really got screwed it was the American Indian.
It is true that the South lost the Civil War but they really never gave up the fight. In 1865 each of the former slaves were supposed to get forty acres of land and a mule. After Abraham Lincoln who was a Republican was assassinated, his successor was Andrew Johnson, a southern Democrat, who reversed this ruling.
However, the US did give reparations of roughly $1,000 to each American Indian. No, they all didn’t get gambling casinos. Not that many years ago each of the surviving Japanese Americans interned during WWII by by President Roosevelt was paid $20,000. The native Alaskans received around one billion dollars and forty million acres. After WWII some countries did pay reparations, Germany in particular, voluntarily coughing up in excess of eighty billion to the holocaust survivors.
PROTESTING VS LOOTING.
There is a difference. I remember the Watts Riots from 1965 and the Rodney King Riots from 1992, both of them in California. Now we have the United States Riots of 2020 that do not seem to have any specific boundaries. But they are not all riots. Some are honest protests. But what about all those protests that did get out of hand and morphed into full scale lootings? Are we to look the other way? The mayor of Seattle did. It was only when the protests reached her front door did she react and gave the order to clear out the CHOP Zone. So where have all the CHOPPERS gone? To Portland, most likely.
Our poor statues appear to be getting the worst of it. It is true that we should never have statues or other commemorations to those who represented and stood for the ideals that are against everything that our country stands for. But since we are in America, there should a vote as to what to do about these icons that are offensive and if the majority so decrees that they are to be removed, so be it. Remove them and put them in storage somewhere. Never permit a small segment of our country to run amok and destroy these reminders of an imperfect past. We are not the Taliban nor one of the Caliphates in the Mid East. If we are to know where we are going as a country it is important to know from where we have come, warts and all.