They rioted, burning down some of their homes. A picture of two "black" teenagers in long white T-shirts standing near the smoldering ashes of one of the homes was on the front page of the San Diego newspaper and many out of State newspapers. I sat in the library reading the story.
They rampaged through the streets, setting houses afire in Benton Harbor, Michigan, population 11,000 -- "blacks" 8,000 strong. It was June 19, 21st century; June 19 is called JUNETEENTH by "blacks" and is celebrated as the day many slaves belatedly learned that they had been freed from slavery. How ironic that in this 21st century -- over a hundred years after slavery -- they should celebrate that day of freedom by rioting and burning some homes of "blacks"; but a "black," fleeing a white policeman, had crashed his motorcycle into a building and had been killed on impact.
Would a reasoning person -- who did not witness the confrontation between the "black" and the policeman -- blame the policeman because the "black" showed disrespect for his authority by fleeing, and ended up crashing into a building?
That incident in Benton Harbor came to mind on hearing President Obama refer, on July 22, 21st century, to the encounter between an Afrikan American professor, Henry L. Gates, and a white policeman in Cambridge. He was not at the scene of the incident and didn't know who said what. With the United States drowning in horrendous, scary unemployment, military, and financial problems, how does the President of the United States have time to meddle in a petty he-said-they-said problem of racial whining?
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