No One Will Agree But.....

I think that it might be a fair thing to say that my interest is in politics and big picture thinking. I do not often watch the local news for the simple reason that murder, oxy contin abuse and bath salts depress me in a way that is totally different than the national, large picture issues of the day.

In Florida it is quite evident that in the case of the African American boy who was shot and killed by a so called Neighborhood Watch Captain that the Sanford police department did not do a good job in investigating the case. And not doing a good job may be putting it mildly.

It is so hard to have an opinion outside of the media rage that is all over this case without feeling like you need to defend your position. I want their to be justice. It appears that the Sanford Police were careless at best and criminal at worst. By criminal one means that an active effort was made to hide evidence and not bring a person to justice that a reasonable person would infer was guilty of a crime. Careless would mean that the police acted in a sloppy way, with poor procedures, and perhaps even acted based on preconceived notions without a full investigation.

Now what becomes the issue is what is your definition of careless and criminal. So much depends on your viewpoint. That is the problem. Do you remember the pictures of the Simpson verdict when we were shown scenes of African American students at Howard University celebrating with joy the innocent verdict and similar scenes of white folks hearing the verdict with dismay. Later we heard about black citizens saying this was retribution, not a verdict of innocence of guilt but retribution for past crimes and attitudes against black people

We have a huge racial divide in this country. What needs to be understood however is that as angry as the black community is over this that screaming from the rooftops will not do anything whatsoever to help race relations in this country. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson like bees to honey become the spokespeople for the black community. Can you imagine if a white child in Bangor was murdered by a black person. Let's be real. We would be outraged and we would be upset. We would not however see any mainstream figures going on television and talking about the problems of consistent crimes by black people.

It is so hard. I am told and I am sure that it is true, I do not understand the black experience. This is no news to me, I know it is the truth. But hell I do not understand the Facebook, Texting, Easy Hook up culture of white suburban high schools either. In short I am a middle aged white man who acts and thinks older than I even am. I acknowledge and accept these facts.


I still believe however that most folks are good folks, that our politicians are for the most part mindless weathervanes, and that usually when someone says the word " Honestly" before starting a sentence they are about to lie to you.

Driving while black, walking while black my wife tells me I do not understand it. Neither does she of course but she does have a stronger sympathy with this issue. When I tell her that if I was black I would not be angry if I was pulled over when they were looking for a black man who had committed a crime she says I am crazy. Maybe I am. If the police have a description of a large white man with a shaved head committing a crime would another man of the same description be frustrated to be asked questions by the police. It is hard to think they would. They would not like it, they would not enjoy it, but to be outraged, I just do not see it.

Of course my wife and I disagree about profiling in general. I said look if they let an Arabic man on a plane without an extra patdown but do pull a grandmom out of the line as an issue of fairness I say they are not doing their job. I feel like if I was an Arab I would not like being questioned more, and suspected more, but I would be more upset about the Arabs that have put me in this position than about being questioned.

I am in the minority. Perhaps as a white citizen who grew up in the whitest state in America my opinion is wrong, or worse yet perhaps some would say it does not count.

I am glad the feds are looking into the Martin case. I want their to be justice. I think, however, that as hard as it is that we all need to take a breath. For years and years black suspects were placed on a fast track to be judged guilty. If a white person was killed by a black person mob justice could take place or force the wheels of justice to proceed with evidence that would be considered faulty. It would seem to me that a rational person could see that we now have a mob mentality with the Zimmerman case.


We have a Presidential election taking place. We have Syria in flames, oil prices rising and the Supreme Court debating health care. And we have most of the shows on MSNBC devoting much of their time to this case.

As with most things we get the news we deserve. Clearly this brings ratings. The question we should ask ourselves is this. Why does Charles Blow of The New York Times, a wonderful, respected African American journalist care more about this case than any other. I do not question his concern but why is he more concerned about this. If as much time was spent on Fox News about a case of a black on white crime we would be hearing chants of how racist Fox news is. This is true and am going to say it.

Newt Gingrich is a moron and he was clearly trying to make political points when he commented on Obama's comments on this case. Obama made some thoughtful remarks on the case and commented that if he had a son he would look like the Martin boy. He may well be correct. Gingrich in full hypocritical attack mode ( please see previous post) and said it was disgaceful that Obama appeared to care more about this case than any other. Gingrich's point was that it is a tragedy if any young man, black, white or any other color is killed. He is, of course, correct. However the message was lost in his clumsy attempt to score political points off the issue.


I have no answer to this. I want justice. I do think however that there are many people out there both black and white who use cases like this to further their own cause, interest and celebrity. I think that is a shame no matter what color you are.