Add Ferguson to the List of Black Communities Burned

Following the release of the news that no charges would be filed against the white police officer who, in self-defense, shot and killed a black teen in Ferguson Missouri, a faction of the community spent the remainder of the evening looting and burning down their own town.  Subsequently, today and for several days to come, we will get to listen to all the self-proclaimed spokespersons of the black community explain how these actions are everyone’s fault but their own.

These patterns of mindless destruction and violence have become is predictable as they have been repeatable and there is nothing that can be said or done to stop it.  It has been tried for decades with program after program, outreach after outreach and opportunity after opportunity, injecting billions of taxpayer’s dollars into communities that seem to have little to no desire to better themselves.

It is time we quit making excuses for bad behavior.  As well, it is time to stop shifting the blame away from those who choose to act out in a lawless and destructive manner.  Not until the people within our nation’s depressed black communities choose to quit playing the victim and decide to better themselves will things change.

But this will never happen so long as the people of these communities choose to be represented by national figures the likes of Al Sharpton and other such race baiters who surface just long enough to keep themselves relevant and in the process stir the racial pot into a frenzy.  So long as the Al Sharpton’s of the world continue to convince the people who live in these poor black communities that they are victims they will remain so.  What these communities need is not another social program, what they need is better national leaders and representatives. 

All that the great Reverend Martin Luther King accomplished in his all too short a lifetime often seems all for not.  The people who vandalized, burned and stole from businesses in their community last evening should be ashamed of themselves.  The problem is that they are not!

Eric Holder Is AWOL in Ferguson

Nearly three months since a grand jury began to hear evidence in the police shooting death of a black teenager, deliberations, which will determine if there will be calm or chaos in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, are expected to begin any time now.

The death of 18 year old Michael Brown, on August 9^th, was followed by several days of civil unrest by hundreds of angered residents of the predominantly black community of Ferguson.  The incident gained national attention which included President Obama addressing the nation in the matter and a one day visit to the town of Ferguson by our nation’s top cop, US Attorney General Eric Holder.

Eric Holder’s short visit to Ferguson included cursory visits to an area school, community college, and with a small number of community members who gathered in a local restaurant.  Holder also spent time discussing the tenuous relationship between the community and local police with members of Ferguson’s law enforcement, community and religious leaders.  What Eric Holder’s visit to Ferguson did not include was face to face dialog with was the hundreds of community member hell bent in burning the town down if a police officer Daren Wilson is not indicted for the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Since Eric Holders departure, tension between community members and law enforcement in Ferguson remains high.  Nightly protests continue and are often punctuated with acts of civil disobedience and violence.  Local law enforcement, which is often the target of the protestor’s anger, has had little success in defusing the situation.

For some time now, what has been needed in the town of Ferguson is for a strong black figurehead to come in and open a dialog with the protestors, a voice of reason to help explain to the community the judicial process that is taking place with the grand jury and the importance of accepting the outcome of that process, a person such as Eric Holder.

Yet, after vowing to help the community through its healing process, Holder has been unable to carve out a single day in his schedule to visit the people of Ferguson.  Just one day would have likely prevented much of the violence that has transpired in the streets of Ferguson over the past three months.  Just one day might make the difference between peaceful protest and a city going up in flames if in fact the grand jury finds no grounds on which to charge Officer Wilson.

The racial tensions that have risen out of the police officers shooting of a black youth in Ferguson MO, has provided America’s first black US Attorney General and even the first black President of the United States with not just a unique but also a historic opportunity to have made a difference, but the opportunity seems to have been squandered away.