Ferguson, Missouri

If the race of the victim and the police officer had been different or reversed, it might have had a paragraph in a St. Louis newspaper/evening news. I am waiting for the investigation. If Brown was in fact a threat, or was stealing, as some videos show, it still is not a death sentence; if the officer has been trained to shoot if he feels threatened, we also need to know that. Beyond the investigation of his death, there's the other issue of the rioting and looting. If it were your neighborhood, what would you want police to do? Beyond the death of Brown, I do question some decisions of the police--like releasing the name of the officer, and the incredibly heavy armaments that only alarmed the residents. And I would ask any reflexive "it's police brutality" person, who do you call when there's a break-in or robbery at your business or residence? Al Sharpton or the police?

Yesterday at Lakeside Chautauqua chaplain hour Dr. Ronald White Jr. had us examine an 1838 speech by Lincoln, and we'll follow the development of his thought over the years through his speeches. This one for the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL was during a time of mob behavior, and he was addressing the dangers of mobocracy following the death of Elijah Lovejoy, who had left St. Louis to be safer in Illinois. Same words true today about mobs. "Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy."

Why do the media focus on Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin when their tragic deaths are not the norm? They refuse to do the real story--the high abortion rate and it being the number one cause of death for African Americans. A billboard in NYC "The Most Dangerous Place for an African-American is in the Womb" had to be removed not because it was racist as liberals charged, but because it was true.