Quote Of The Day - Baltimore

Allison Hantschel at First Draft has a piece about the rebellion in Baltimore, with this keen insight:

This is how today is like every other day. The world is on fire. And we notice today, because we’ve decided to notice, today. When we forget again tomorrow, it won’t be because we can no longer smell the smoke.

People called for help, and nobody answered. For years. They did this for years, and years, and years, while the streets crumbled beneath them. The factories closed, and the schools shut down, and the swingsets rusted in the parks while the weeds grew tall. Those with the power to help drove fast through those neighborhoods, called them rough, asked why the people there just didn’t move.

Talked about personal responsibility, about bootstraps, about pulling up pants and not listening to angry loud music and wearing the right kinds of shirts to the right kinds of protests with the right kinds of people. Those with the power to change things demanded change from the powerless.

Tomorrow many, many people will ask why, and somebody will keep track of who condemned what, and when, and how loudly. People are calling for help, and nobody is answering...

Compare that to the things being said by the clueless right wingers who are trying to blame the unrest on the victims of the rampant police brutality and blatant racism that is plaguing our country.

What really gets to me are when these right wing racists clutch their fainting pearls and bemoan how "those people" don't know or appreciate the meaning of life.  These are the same fools that go to insane measures of tortured logic to justify the police brutality.  They are also the same people that will exploit blacks - and all minorities and poor people - through education profiteering, worker exploitation (right to work), voter suppression and other Jim Crow laws.

If anything, one should say that the blacks are the ones that truly understand and appreciate the worth of life and are fighting to keep it from those who would steal it.