Fighting The Whole Story

The fight could have been avoided, yet it was inevitable.
"What's  this about?" the first police officer asked the man standing with his two teenage daughters.
"He resented what I was telling my two daughters about the bridge," the man said, pointing at the other man near him on the bridge.
"No, I said he -- like all these race hustlers -- was starting in the middle of the sream, not telling the whole --"
"Just be calm," the second police officer interrupted, "let him finish, then you can speak."
"Well, I was telling my daughters about the role this bridge played in eliminating some of the suffering of our people -- I say 'some' of the suffering  because we're still suffering from --"
"See, see -- that's what I'm talking about.  They always start in the middle of the stream, never what got us here -- how --"
"I asked you to be calm," the second police officer interrupted again, "let him finish  --"
"No," the first police officer cut in, "I think he's on to something. Let  him continue."

"Well, they never start with our ancestors back in Afrika who captured us from different tribes and sold us to Arabs and Europeans or we wouldn't have been here to get beat up on any bridges or used as cannon fodder by newspapers and TV news with explosive headlines:  'UNARMED man shot by police.'  Never admitting or intimating that these  'UNARMED' men attacking police and resisting arrest are dangerous.  Never daring to question why would a black with any sense want to be in an all-white fraternity anymore than a white with any sense would want to be in an all-black fraternity.  Never mentioning that a year before the march on this bridge a voice hurled across this nation:  'We no longer have to be cheap imitations of Anglos.  We can have our own identity -- as other people -- our own culture with a unique language -- as other people.'  But from those who now suddenly feel so gloriously attached to the bloody sacrifices on this bridge silence still rebukes that voice.  We have no culture!  Can't conceive of being anything but cheap imitations of Anglos!  And we can't blame ancestors or anybody but ourselves for that.  Anyway, if it hadn't been for slavery we wouldn't even exist --"

"Okay, okay,"  the first police officer said, "we've heard enough.  Both of you guys have a right to your opinion, so just shake hands and we'll move on -- and just tell the whole story or we'll always  have these brdges."