Being from originally from St. Louis, I have been watching the events in Ferguson carefully.  I worried from the very beginning that no matter what the grand jury verdict was, violence would erupt in the streets of Ferguson.  Why did I feel that way?  Because the protesters in Ferguson didn’t want the truth, they wanted justice for an imagined wrong, and no matter how much evidence was presented that might  justify the shooting, they would never believe that Michael Brown deserved any part of it.

As soon as it was publicized that a white police officer shot a black man, the media circus grabbed their monkeys and sprung into action.  If this officer had shot a white man it is highly likely that the story would have never made it to the mainstream media.  Unfortunately, the very fact that racial tensions have been running high in Ferguson for many years caused  the media outlets to jump on the bandwagon, sensationalizing the story day after day.

Why?  Because viewers love sensational stories, sensational stories get big ratings, and ratings get sponsors.   It’s all about the money for the media outlets and the glory and prospect of more votes, for the politicians that climbed on board.  They played on the emotions of the citizens of Ferguson and the rest of the country.  They  won the attention they craved by urging everyone to take a side.   They made a mockery of the city by making the tragedy of the loss of a human life all about race, when it clearly was not.

Sure, Michael Brown was black and Darren Wilson was white, but that was where the race card ended.  If Michael Brown had been white, would he have been shot in the same circumstances?  The answer is yes.  Michael Brown couldn’t have drawn attention to himself more if he’d been waving a banner.  Most of the witnesses say he went for the officer’s gun,  a very deadly mistake.  All police officers are trained to  guard their guns religiously.  If a suspect gets your gun, you are as good as dead, why  would someone try to take your gun, if they weren’t going to shoot you with it?  Logic would tell you then, that this officer will try to shoot the person who is wrestling him for his gun, especially if he is currently losing the struggle to maintain his hold on it.  If you are busy wrestling for your gun, you can’t reach for another, less lethal weapon.   You can’t take your hand off your gun, if you do, it will be used against you and possibly other innocent people.

My heart goes out to Mr. Brown’s family, nobody wants to lose a child, but unfortunately, as his parents,  they were largely responsible for his death.  Being a parent is a full time job, not to be taken lightly.  It is a much harder job when you live in a depressed area and this child is growing up in a broken family.  Teenagers are easily impressionable by their peers, so monitoring who they are hanging around with is extremely important.  Perhaps if Michael Brown had not been hanging around with an ex con, he wouldn’t have felt the need to participate in a strong arm robbery and steal something he really didn’t need in the first place.  I had two teenagers myself and believe me if either of them had ever been caught stealing they would have had to answer to me and their father, and it would not have been pretty in the end for them.

I think this country is truly suffering right now, hiding behind a curtain of thinly veiled hate that is disguised as righteousness.  Why should anything be about a person’s color, their background or their sexual orientation?  Why do we keep ingraining the hate into our children when the world would be much better off if we just let it go?  I grew up in St. Louis and my father was a school administrator who worked for the St. Louis public schools.  He worked in many of the inner city schools trying to improve them to the best of his ability.  As a result, I spent a lot of time at those schools as well.  My first experience at an inner city school was in first grade.  Though I was the only “white” kid for miles, everyone played with me and we all got along well.  Race was not an issue at all.  Things were different by the time I had reached the Jr. High age.  I was suddenly rejected by kids I had known for years who told me their families told them they shouldn’t hang out with me because I was white.  I was perplexed, what difference did it make?

Unfortunately, many kids have been taught for years to avoid children of other races, why do we do this to our kids?  Children are innocent.  I know that white people have a long history of being racist, but shouldn’t we consider the person, not the shell they come in?  I cringe when I read stories of the awful racism in our past and I realize that some people will never let go of their hate, but violence is never the answer.

People have been hiding behind their race, their bibles, and their thinly veiled hate for too long.  Before you automatically hate someone think about why it is, you think you hate them.  We have been herded along like  sheep for too long.  If you’ve been trained to hate by your parents, your church or some other outside influence isn’t it  time to start thinking for yourself?  Are we not all just people?  Whether black or white, gay or straight, cop or cop hater, we are all just people with feelings and families and bills to pay.

Darren Wilson is just a man who dedicates his life to enforcing the law.  The law that is meant to protect you and your family.  Many people hate him just because he is a cop, his job is dangerous and he must always be alert or he’s as good as dead.  As any of the family members of the many Police officers who are slain in the line of duty every year would attest to.   I imagine Darren Wilson didn’t want a confrontation, why would he?  It would be so much easier to skate through his shift without  encountering anyone, but he had an obligation to the citizens of his city, including the man who had just been robbed by Michael Brown.

If you want your children to be safe in this world you will teach them to be respectful of everyone they meet, their elders, a clerk in the store, the police… Everyone!   If Michael Brown had be respectful he would have paid for the cigarillos, he would have stepped onto the sidewalk when the officer asked him to and he would still be alive, but somewhere in Michael Brown’s heart he was disrespectful, feeling entitled, righteous.  Now the crowds in Ferguson are feeling righteous as well, stealing, destroying other people’s property, how does this equate to justice for Michael Brown?  The answer is, it does not, it only intensifies the hate.  Note to the people of Ferguson, I know a few bad apples are the ones that are getting all the attention right now and many of you are as appalled by the riots as I am.  Just remember, you can never heal if you don’t let go of the hate.  You will never get respect if you don’t practice respect, life is a two way street.