I
wish I had the whole file on Michael Brown and the police officer who shot
him. I keep reading news stories and
editorials and they all have different opinions. I’d love to know what exactly happened. Everything I write today is about what I have
read. I was not there.
The
latest editorial I read was about the number of black men shot by white
policemen and how it compares to the number of people shot in Britain, which is
apparently very low. My question to the
writer would be this, Are the police
officers treated differently in Britain than they are here? And, Do
the Brits have the same sense of entitlement that Americans do? Do the
parents in Britain go off on their children’s teachers when the kids misbehave
at school? I don’t think that’s
asking too much. I have a feeling that
Britain’s children are brought up very differently than American children. Do the
Brits spank their children; teach them right from wrong and to respect
authority? Because I have to believe
they do. Lack of respect for authority
is ingrained in our children from a very young age. I believe it has to do with single parent
households with no strong male figure to enforce rules and set a good example
on how to treat people.
My
dad was a fair man. He was not a violent
man. I was lucky to have two parents in
my home to raise me up. My mom was the
nurturer. My dad was the provider. They loved me and I knew it even when I told
them they didn’t. I was a rebellious
teenager, yet I knew that they were teaching me the right lessons. I got into trouble, but I never tried to
wrestle with a police officer. I never
did something wrong in front of someone and pretend I didn’t. When I got caught I knew I was caught. I didn’t fight it. Why do today’s youth think they can fight it,
that it is their right to fight it? We
had the Beastie Boys fighting for their right to party and we still knew that
when we were told to stop we had to actually stop. Maybe it’s the culture.
I
hate to say it’s a black and white thing, because I feel that if a black police
officer fired on a white criminal, it wouldn’t be as big as the Michael Brown
case. Michael stole something before he
was shot. Michael was warned before he
got shot. Michael was supposed to start
college this past fall. He was smarter
than he was acting, apparently. Why didn’t
he stop when he was told? Why did he
advance on the officer? I’m sorry. If it were my son I would be devastated too,
but he was wrong to do what he did. What
about the officer? I can’t imagine
shooting someone, much less killing them.
Of course they are trained to fire, but it still has to have a major
emotional impact.
The
other thing I hate to read about is how Martin Luther King Jr. would have
condoned the riots after the hearing. I’d
think he would not have liked it at all.
The riots afterwards were anything but peaceably assembling to make a
statement. Another boy was killed during
the riots. I wonder if he would still be
alive had the riots not happened.
What
happened in Ferguson should be a lesson to us all. Respect others, respect authority, be honest,
and take responsibility. Treat others as
you want to be treated. Think before you
act. If we all did this, instead of
trying to be better (stronger, smarter, faster, etc.) than everyone else, then
I think we would be a stronger nation.
We all would be better for it, no matter what our color.
