Racism is the crime
By JOSH RESNEK
If you are old enough to recall the rise of the anti-Vietnam War movement during the late 1960’s you can understand fully that the protests we are witnessing in the United States right now is not just a matter of lawlessness and insurrection but rather, a rise up of the population against racism.
Such a rise-up produces explosions of emotion and the great movement of masses protesting a wrong and willing to fight to change the world is what comes of the protest.
During the Vietnam War years many factions finally joined forces to oppose the war and for us to get out, despite President Nixon’s belief that we needed to stay in Vietnam, for the slaughter to continue, to continue to be patriotic, and to win for flag and country. That rap, that national policy lost much of its luster to sensible Americans on the left and the right.
It took years to get out of Vietnam and years to rid the nation of Nixon, who resigned in disgrace.
During the height of the protest era, from 1968-1971, marches on Washington DC made Nixon a hostage inside the White House where he was free to feed his own sorry delusions.
At times, the White House was ringed with sand bagged machine guns and National Guard troops, and even troops from the legendary 110th Airborne Division, so great was the belief that the protesters on the streets could sweep Nixon right out of the White House.
The nation seemed to teeter at that time the way so many believe it is teetering today.
The protests at times shocked the nation to its core.
The assassinations of Senator Robert Kennedy and the Reverend Martin Luther King in 1968 revealed the violent nature of our society more than any of us wished to acknowledge.
Kennedy on his back dying in a pool of his own blood on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel after being shot several times by Sirhan the night he won the Democratic Primary in California is an unforgettable moment in our national history. And it was broadcast live on national television.
Jacob Blake being shot by a Kenosha police officer – seven times in the back at close range – and shown widely on national television, has caused an enormous outrage not just among blacks but among whites.
There is no plausible explaining away the execution of Blake and that he was shot seven times and removed to a hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, and then his ankle handcuffed to the bed by police.
Most Americans seemed to wonder quite righteously: “What the hell is that about?”
Racism. That’s the answer. You don’t need a 30 day investigation to figure it out.
Do investigators and district attorneys in Kenosha need a 30 day investigation to tell us what we witnessed in real time up close on our flat screens?
Are you kidding me?
From my white perspective, it was another black man being blown away for being black by a police officer who should have been immediately arrested for murder.
Policemen can’t be taken off the streets. They must be treated with respect. There has to be respect for law and order.
Make no mistake, racism is the crime.
That’s what the national conversation is growing into – a debate about black people and how they feel like second class citizens, fearful of the law, and in general, fearful of white people who are fearful of them, and fearful of police.
President Trump’s response has been useless and contemptible.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s written speeches read nicely but don’t move hearts and souls.
Trump will not be beaten by Biden or anyone else unless they get down into the gutter with him and smother him after humiliating him. No one in the Democratic Party today has the guts to do this.
For Trump, poor behavior is second nature.
The angry white man wins – but only for a while.
Protest connected with racism will resonate and grow. It is growing as this is written.
A black man shot in the back at close range seven times, paralyzed, and then shackled with handcuffs by the ankle in his hospital bed after other horrifying black deaths at the hands of white police officers highlights the growing belief that all is not well for black people in America.
No black person, brown person, Hispanic person has ever been shot seven times in the back by a white police officer in Everett or Chelsea or Revere or in countless communities across the land.
Police officers around here understand how to keep the law without executing anyone.
Everett police officers don’t work against the multi-cultural population here.
They work with the multi-culturals. Everything is done to be respectful and to keep the peace – for everyone.
Every police officer in the nation has to learn about restraint in order to stop these atrocious acts of execution of blacks.
The national debate about race will ultimately take over the reason to exist in this nation sooner than you think.
Ending racism is a long winding road, like ending the Vietnam War.
It took a decade – years and years of protest, debate, and violence – before the Vietnam War ended and we swore, “Never again.”
Racism needs to be erased. How to do this is another mystery – but it won’t be done without sacrifice, protest and violence.
No matter what President Trump does, he cannot stop this new wave of protest from blacks and whites decrying racism.
Dealing with its harsh reality will make us a better nation.
In the meantime, we all wonder and some of us worry where the COVID-19, 25 million unemployed and cries about racism are leading us?