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you help them and hurt your own cause ...
When you burn the flag for which millions of black people have fought and died,
you mock their sacrifice.
If you feel the Ferguson Grand Jury dirtied the concept of American equal justice under the law ...
You WASH the flag. You do not BURN it.
You aid the cause of those who say you are filled with nothing but hatred and rage.
When you rob a liquor store, you ARE NOT PROTESTING ...
YOU ARE LOOTING.
When you revel in the burning of property belonging to someone else
merely because you are angry and they are white, you are saying that prejudice is right.
You have allowed yourself to become infected with the same sickness that you decry in the police.
Breaking into and stealing from a beauty supply shop is NOT PROTESTING.
It is ROBBERY done shabbily under the guise of civil rights protesting.
BUT THEY FORCED US TO DO THIS!
Really?
People can take from you everything but your choice of how to respond to their actions.
You are not shaming your critics by the nobility of your actions and words as Martin Luther King did.
You are supporting their case AGAINST you.
When you burn down your neighborhood to protest how it is being treated,
YOU ARE HELPING THOSE WHO OPPRESS YOU.
MARTIN LUTHER KING endured much worse than you in Ferguson are experiencing.
His nonviolent protest enabled the Civil Rights Act to be passed into legislation.
Your hate, violence, and open looting under the false guise of Civil Rights Protesting cheapens his sacrifice.
Please think about living his dream with
bravery, compassion, and nobility.
Amen, Roland. Such a shame. And the father of the young man killed has been calling for peace, but to no avail...
ReplyDeleteAlex:
ReplyDeleteLooters are only looking for an excuse to rob, burn, and pillage, giving ammunition to their critics. Sad, indeed. :-(
M.L. King had it right. Anger and mob appeal make many do things they know aren't justified. Racism hasn't been eliminated, it has gone undercover.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the similar episode in California. When like (police and justice system) protects their own, justice does not appear to be served.
D.G.:
ReplyDeleteRacism is ugly. It takes wisdom, courage, and inner strength to not let hate infect you, lowering you to the level of the bigots.
The burnings and lootings will only drive away those shop owners, and the neighborhoods will become more blighted, more miserable, more hopeless.
ReplyDeleteYou've written a wise post, Roland. May it turn some people away from the darkness.
Hi Roland .. I agree completely with your post.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me as I watched a tv snippet - was people standing over a police car taking photos, while the mob were rocking it to turn it over - I thought responsible citizens were meant to protect their neighbourhood: man, property, goods and nature ...
I sincerely hope it calms down - Hilary
Helena:
ReplyDeleteHaters are immune to reason, no matter their skin color. Sigh.
Besides, I am hardly a high-profile blog. I just hoped one person might be touched to think before hating.
Hilary:
You said it: responsible citizens. These rioters have become an ugly-minded, violent mob.
I hope for a calm, too. But it saddens me that the bravery, will power, and commitment of those black civil rights proponents are cheapened by their descendants.
Thanks for visiting while I am out blood running. :-)
Extremely well said, Roland, and exactly along the lines of what I've been thinking. Hoping for peace in Missouri.
ReplyDeleteI have a huge, HUGE problem with the things you're saying here.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, no matter how much it offends you, black people are NOT proving their critics right or hurting their own cause by burning a flag which represents, to them, the system that released a man who murdered an eighteen-year-old, a system that protects white men and persecutes minorities. And no, they aren't mocking any sacrifice of their own people, either, as they can attest to more than any white person can. They weren't the ones who burned down their own church or other businesses. Those were looters and rioters, some affiliated with the KKK.
THEY are not infected with any illness, except the wariness of having their children shot for crossing paths with the police. THEY are not robbing, and it is sickening that you would blame people who are peacefully protesting (yes, peacefully, why don't you look it up on Twitter or Facebook) for what some jerks are doing.
You should be ashamed for appropriating Martin Luther King's words. It doesn't matter if he experience worse. They are experiencing their children getting shot in the street with no justice and that seems pretty damn protest-worthy to me. You please think about how you know nothing about what these people are suffering through. Neither do I, to tell the truth, but at least I realize that.
You are part of the system that tells black people they should stay quiet and wait for white people to acknowledge their rights because any protest (unlike throwing tea into the ocean to protest taxes, I guess) is violence. You are a racist, Roland.