Here are the facts that we know so far.
About a month ago, two individuals each made a bad decision when they encountered each other one night.
One of the individuals was killed in the process.
The incident should not have happened. The resultant death is senseless.
Let’s see. I’m sure there are other senseless actions at play here too.
When the President made reference to the decedent as a kid who could have looked like his own had he had a son, that was senseless.
Whenever pathological race baters such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton inject themselves into a situation like this (or any situation) that’s senseless too.
When the mother of the descendent moves to trademark various slogans which invoke the name of her son, that seems to be senseless.
When a highly placed member of the New Black Panthers places a bounty on the head of the surviving member of the original incident, that’s senseless.
When a celebrity tweets the address of where the survivor of the incident is hiding, that’s senseless.
Its even more senseless when the address turns out to be wrong, and the elderly couple who resides there has to go into hiding.
Those who lectured us last year against using fiery rhetoric in the wake of the Gabriel Giffords shooting have used the same fiery rhetoric over this matter. They have not called for any toning down of the talk which is happening right now.
Yeah, that’s senseless too.
A big part of the problem here is that we don’t know the entire story yet of what really happened, short of what I described before. Naturally, we don’t want silly facts to get in the way of our collective rush to judgement.
Rushing to judgement rocks. Look at where it got us with the 96 bombing at the summer Olympics in Atlanta. For that matter, who can think of the Duke Lacrosse team without considering a rape incident?
Whatever happened to Tawana Brawley or Richard Jewel? What about those kids on the Duke Lacrosse team or their accuser?
Frank Reynolds is probably rolling in his grave.
Reynolds, of course, was the news anchor at ABC who was on air when Reagan was shot in 1981. When the details weren’t coming to him correctly as he reported the details of the event on air, Reynolds yelled at the staff off camera: “Let’s get it nailed down…somebody…let’s find out! Let’s get it straight so we can report this thing accurately!”
Can you picture any of today’s anchors demanding such journalistic integrity (an oxymoronic term nowadays) while on air?
I can’t.
One more senseless thing comes to mind. Here in the middle of March where we are starting to get into the hotter months of spring and summer, the campaign to reelect the President is selling hoodies. Certainly it’s not as crass as the ones they sold a few years ago referring to healthcare as a “BFD”. Or is it?
The hoodie has become a symbol of what happened in Florida, which for all intents and purposes is characterized as a racially motivated crime. Doesn’t it seem senseless that the President would use the devices of such an incident to garner some votes?
Please understand here and now that I’m not picking sides in this one yet. All of the facts are not known yet, and those which are known depict conflicting accounts.
I’d rather wait and get this one nailed down first.
