Upside down world

"One of the black leaders who I respect was recently asked how to stop the madness. How to get our upside world righted again. He said it ALL starts in the home." 

Cops having to shoot people of color. Demonstrations, marches and riots breaking out in large cities. Professional and student athletes taking a knee or raising a fist during the national anthem. Add into that, many large cities seeing record or near record amount of shootings and/or homicides. What in the world is going on here? 

It seems the "post racial America" we were promised under Obama has turned out to be something quite different. As bad as things were during the Rodney King event, they are much worse now. And all our President can do is lecture us. And he will not take any blame for what has happened. Yet he should.

Here is the bottom line. In the past, being a police officer was a tough and dangerous job. In today's world, it is ten times worse. Life and death decisions need to be made in seconds. Sometimes a split second. And I know this for a fact. The last thing any police officer wants to do while on duty is to fire his or her weapon in anger.

Yet, some on the Left want the police vilified. Just listen to Hillary sometime when she addresses this issue. A few people with a high violence quotient, want anyone in a police uniform seen as a target. However, the vast majority of us respect our police. We know they have the most difficult job. Keeping the peace in a world which has become more and more devoid of peace. Making it through a watch string without killing or being killed. Not too many other occupations share that concern.

One of the black leaders who I respect recently was asked how to stop this madness. How to get our upside world righted again. He said it ALL starts in the home. We have way too many homes which are broken or dysfunctional. And that affects everything. It affects how kids do in school. If they can get a job. If they will dabble in crime. Or if they will dive head first into serious crime. 

He went on to say something very interesting. The black family was very, very strong prior to 1965. The Great Society was nothing more than a wrecking ball on the black family. Now, fifty years later under President Obama, many black families are in tatters. Over 70% of all black babies are born to single mothers. The unemployment rate for black youth is through the roof. Many cities (like the Twin Cities), have fairly good results in education - except they have a huge achievement gap between white and non-white students.

This man finished up the discussion by telling us he believes all in not lost with the black family. It can once again be as strong as it was. The fix comes from the government. In other words, the government screwed this up fifty years ago, and the government can fix it by staying the heck out of it. He said we need to un-do many things the Great Society screwed up. 

One final thought. Someone penned a good letter to the editor in the paper this weekend. It asked why we don't have better non-lethal solutions the police could use. The taser only works at a close distance. Plus, it is not effective with some people. The article said we need something like a "stun gun". Something similar to what was used in the TV show Star Trek. Stun someone, and they pass out, and wake up with a headache. But nobody dies.

What I do know is we need to fix this, and now. We are in a mess. We are coming apart at the seems. If we don't fix it, and it gets worse, Heaven help us. Seriously, Heaven will need to help us.