Ferguson Burns, When Will We Learn?

Reading the news today I see there were was a couple of shootings involving police officers with one being hit in the arm in Ferguson, MO. While the police chief is loathed to come out and say that there is no connection to the rioting due to the death of Michael Brown, it's not a long stretch to connect the dots. Why do people always think that rioting is the answer? The answer to what, destruction of property? Lets riot and burn our town down. Sounds like a great idea to me! Do they ever think of what is our end game? What do we want? Most would probably answer we want justice for Mike Brown and for any unarmed black youth that is shot and killed. Still these people look for a reason to riot and the race baiters are only too happy to descend and exploit their anger, lack of education and in most instances lack of intelligence.

I have not seen all the facts in the Michael Brown case so I will refrain from a final judgement, but from what I've seen he doesn't appear to be too innocent. Fact is he was caught on camera about 15 minutes prior to his death committing a strong armed robbery. Now I don't know about most people, but if that were me, I would be pretty amped up in an aggressive mood. So with that in mind I would think he wouldn't be too cooperative with a white police officer when they crossed paths. Then there is the fact that he assaulted the police officer. If I'm in that situation, I'm going to be the most cooperative person on the face of the earth. I don't care if the officer is white, black, asian, hispanic or polka dot. I value my life and I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize it. This is not a situation where you get a mulligan. Things in a heated and tense situation can change in an instant and why do something stupid to escalate it? Again we have a situation where we can choose our actions but we can't choose the consequences. And then we don't want to be responsible for those choices we made.

At the end of the day, the only one responsible for Michael Browns death is himself. He chose to rob the convenience store and he chose his actions with the police officer that led to his getting killed. No one else did but him. It's a bitch for some to accept it. It's too easy to play the race card. I'm not saying race doesn't sometimes play a part but you can't conduct yourself in that manner and expect everything to be smooth sailing. As for the rioting that ensued, all those people are responsible for their conduct on an individual basis. Sad how one persons bad actions was a catalyst for the masses to  commit, robbery, assault and whatever other wickedness they could conceive.

What the community of Ferguson really needs are conservative Africa American leaders who are going to come in and preach families, education and a solid work ethic. No one is saying it but the broken home is killing their community and not just their community alone but all communities in America. The political correctness of America is killing us as a nation. Just call it like it is. He was a punk whose life was cut way to short, who didn't deserve to die, but whose actions contributed to his death 100%. Some 20 years after the Rodney King rioting and what have we learned, not much. I could go on and on with this post but it wasn't meant to be an essay.

Great time today at the Kino Aquatic Center for the Jamina Winston Memorial SCM Masters Meet. Swam the 800, 200, 50 & 100 free. Free is the only stroke I can make anymore. My back is only serviceable to get up and down the pool. Was happy with my times coming in 13 seconds under my entered time of 11:00:00 for the 800, hit my entry time of 2:23 for the 200, was a 29:48 for my 50 and a 2:03:99 for my 100 in winning my heat. Wanted to be closer to a 00 but died coming home. Surreal moment of the day was Cesar Cielo the WR holder in the 50 & 100 Free LC wishing me good luck before my race as he was swimming in the next heat. How often will that happen? Probably never again. It's always a good time hanging with my MAC mates!

Hello

I started this blog to give myself a forum to rant and rage about what ever is on my mind. I titled it Between Something And Nothing because what I have to say probably falls somewhere between the two. It either has some merit or I'm just going off on some rant. The name though is taken from a song by one of my favorite bands The Ocean Blue. Usually it's politics or sports that occupy my thoughts. Currently it's the lackluster, sorry excuse of a President that we are saddled with who couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. Whether this sees the light of day or not time will tell. I guess at the least though it will be an outlet or soapbox for me to vent. And possibly others will view this blog and offer their comments too.