Everybody look what’s going down

My friend Albert and his wife Sharon wrote a lengthy comment to my last post that I’d like to address because they brought up some compelling points and questions.  You can scroll up to the comments just above this to read their full text.

In order:

I was aware of the 1921 Tulsa race riot before the Trump rally there.  As many as 300 black people were killed and 35 square blocks of a thriving black economy were destroyed.  Bombs were dropped on them from private aircraft.  I gleaned this from several sources, including CNN, which ran archival footage of it many times.  It is just this year that the state of Oklahoma has included this tragedy in its curriculum.

I can’t tell you the motivations of people I don’t know, but I condemn the looting  that has marred the mainly peaceful protests.  I support the removal of Confederate statues, but not by vandals.  This is a complex issue that needs to be reasoned out.

George Floyd was no angel.  He was in jail eight times, then five years in prison for armed robbery.  Upon parole, he started mentoring young men and those with drug problems.  In 2017 he made a video opposing gun violence.  He paid for his crimes and tried to right his life.  He was not a hero, but he is a martyr, however accidentally, and he was not a “boy”.

Aaron Glee Jr. has confessed to killing Oluwatoyin Salau and Victoria Sims, who had met at recent protests.  Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddy” Bryan have been charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery.  Say their names.  Bad people do bad things every day, and it’s part of the human condition.  I don’t think good people want the police dismantled, just reorganized to take some stress off them.

Since 2017, about 100 people have been shot to death by Canadian police, most of them after first shooting at the cops.  Canada has a tenth the population the U.S. does.  The RCMP around here pack pistols with more serious munitions in their cars.

The deaths of Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch, two black men recently found hanging about 50 miles from each other in California, were originally ruled suicides, but are now being investigated as homicides.  I want to blog more about that next time.

Travis Yates does not represent me.  He sounds like an idiot.

I think the U.S. should be run by a President and a Congress that responds to the needs of the people.  When POTUS fails, as Trump has, he or she should be removed by impeachment or voted out.

Although I left the U.S., I’m a dual citizen and still vote, including California elections.  All my family, ex-classmates and old friends are still there.  And I deeply worry about them.