...and now some people 'condone' looting

With the latest outbreak of violent protests, one has to wonder where our system has failed us resulting in so many college age individuals joining in the violence. Ironically, the very youngsters of the 60's and 70's that walked on the edge of legality with drugs, infidelity, and confrontation with "the man", are now the teachers tenured on many college campuses. Freedom of thought and expression of those freedoms are fine as long as they promote useful dialog as opposed to encouraging anarchy, disrepect, and lawlessness. We hear members of the right and left in congress constantly remind us that we are a "nation of laws" but then they temper that with "we are also a compassionate nation". I cannot find any legislation directed towards mandating compassion as I always felt that was a characteristic learned at home, or in church or early in the school years. By using the excuse of compassion, something we all aspire to, many educators now mask a darker agenda of subliminally encouraging the breaking of laws in order to promote 'compassion'. Another goal seems to be stopping fascist, homophobic or xenophobic talk. Most people never even heard these words until educators started using them. As with any words that are over used, eventually they lose their effectiveness and their true meaning is lost in multiple translations. Many consider a fascist to be someone that encourages the violent overthrow of a government in order to suppress democracy and liberalism. Of interest is, that by definition, fascists reject assertions that violence is a negative asset and view political violence, war, and imperialism as means to acheive national rejuvenation. Neither political party in the United States advocates fascist tactics in any form yet pundits love to drop the term, especially when talking of the extreme 'right' leaning groups, in spite of the fact that none of those small groups hold any more sway on national politics than do the extremists of any societal group. If we want to persist in throwing the term around, what are we to call those that incite violence to suppress anyone's free rights as outlined in the constitution ? To me, the real 'fascists' are those that promote violence regardless of their reasons. Constructive dialog is lost on those that prefer to use four-letter words, break a window, or burn a flag as a method of expression, bringing into question, once again, if anything of value is being taught in Universities these days. Maybe like term limits for congress, Universities should revisit the tenure aspect of allowing some educators a platform from which to prosthelytize without consequence. When painting a picture of anyone you oppose, be careful you're not painting a picture of yourself.

hatred for police, or lack of respect for authority?

Once again a local, domestic situation is turned into a headlining discussion of racism.  Although continued discussions on this topic are certainly warranted, very few are willing to really dissect the problem and identify root causes and the behavior that closely follows. One only has to look at recent disaster scenarios to get a feel for the true nature of the "beast", that beast being the uncontrolled responses of certain groups of people to take advantage of any situation to commit lawless acts.  If a hurrricane hits the east coast or an earthquake hits central California, little or no looting takes place. If a hurricane hits New Orleans....need I say more ?  A certain bad attitude or mentality seems to be prevalent whenever opportunity presents itself for looters alomg with discontents to crawl out of their holes. Is this the fault of the police, the mayor's office, the elected officials, or even the store owners ?  Or is this a bored, out-of-work, "feeling entitled" group of individuals whose only desire is to own the biggest car, have the most bling, and that have a wanna-be rap-star mentality using racial 'inequality' over current or past transgressions, real or perceived.  Many educated Americans who happen to be black believe it is the latter, yet the headliners for that community continue to race-bait and blame others for their own short-comings. There is no question that our government continued to put up roadblocks hindering the advancements of races other than the white race, but educated individuals soon realized the errors of these policies and most support changes needed to improve relations between all races while trying to preserve the fledgling history of America, including the bad and good. Those that want an open, honest dialogue about race relations, must include this as part of the discussion. The Ferguson situation is only the latest where "justice" is demanded, yet justice be damned if it is not the justice "I demand". Malcolm X once said " I am for Truth, no matter who tells it.  I am for Justice, no matter who it is for or against.  I am a human being first and foremost, and as such, I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole".  If we are to believe those words, and believe that race was not a factor in saying them, then justice should be promoted and sought on both sides of the equation without bias or predjudice.  Little is being said about the true facts in the case which include two individuals walking down the middle of the street endangering themselves and others (regardless of the fact that those two had just committed a strong-arm robbery), and then being ordered by police to move to the side of the road.  Reminds me of officer Tippett stopping Lee Harvey Oswald and then being shot to death as Oswald knew he had just committed a crime. Just as Oswald likely did, the two "perps" were likely to react violently since they may have justifiably assumed that they were already in trouble, and not just for street-walking. So when one attacks, and the officer, being out-weighed by some 150 lbs, pulls his weapon, the "perp", already in an agitated state, likely tried to pull away the gun. Whether initially wounded or not, if he pulled away and then advanced on the officer again (as evidenced by frontal wounds) one can rest assured that police training is no different than that for a big game hunter when going after Grizzly Bear or Cape Buffalo... shoot until they stop charging. The bottom line is that this whole, terrible situation stems from lack of respect for authority in general, not just hatred of police. Where does that respect for authority come from ? Home and good parenting. Where is that respect lost ?  Through mis-education, the glorification of common hoodlums and criminals in video and music, and general race-baiting by those with something to gain from continued strife between races.  If whites hated blacks so much, why are they promoted and applauded by the majority of Americans on the stage, screen, sports and music ? How did we get a black President elected ? It's time to put the blame where the blame belongs and forget about political correctness. It's time for America to move on to facing the bigger issues that confront our nation rather than continuing to dwell on our past transgressions.