Same Old Story

"A riot is the language of the unheard"~Dr. Martin Luther King


When I saw Baltimore erupt on Monday in a fit of anger & disgust as a result of the media attention on the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African-American man who died of neck injuries suffered in police custody after he was arrested for running (he did nothing wrong), it resurrected a song from within by The Whispers who sang:

Another day has come and gone
In a world where I don't belong
Another week has passed me by
It's not because I didn't try

Nobody saw me walking
And nobody heard me talking
Seems like I gotta do wrong, gotta do wrong, gotta do wrong
Before they notice me

Another job that I just can't get
A nice apartment, the landlord just won't rent
I go to bed, but my sleep just won't come
My belly's empty and my brain is numb

Nobody saw me walking
And nobody heard me talking
Seems like I gotta do wrong, gotta do wrong, gotta do wrong

Before they notice me

Folks at CNN, Fox, NBC, etc - you know, the usual cabal of disinformation specialists - are so quick to label these unfortunate souls "thugs", "looters", "violent", "miscreants". "Our" politicians also toe the line of castigating those who choose to destroy their communities. Yesterday Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) blamed the Baltimore protests on the  "lack of fathers"in the black communities which strikes me as quite interesting as his own son was recently arrested for drunk driving for the third time. What a delusional, quacky hypocrite. 

Yes, I understand wanton chaos and disorder are against what we expect from a civilized society, but what has this so-called civilized society done to the people who reside in West Baltimore? In sections of Detroit...St. Louis....South Carolina...Chicago..Philadelphia???? The answer to the pleas of more jobs, better schools, affordable housing, summer youth programs & community / sports facilities is outsourcing of jobs, privatization of schools, gentrification and heavy-handed, color-coded abuse & punishment. And you wonder "why are they so violent?" 

Violent rage should be condemned, no doubt, but more importantly, it should be understood within its proper context. This maligning of a group of downtrodden people does nothing constructive and only hardens the hearts of people already severely misinformed of what is going on in the world around them. In this era, lies have become comfortable truths. As Walter Scott once quipped, "“Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.” 

Things will simmer and down the memory hole this will go only to resurface again..and again...As Jon Stewart wisely observed recently, "These cyclical eruptions appear like tragedy cicadas, depressing in their similarity, predictability, and intractability.”

The question is will society ever wake up and honestly look itself in the mirror? 



OneLove


:::MME:::