ANALYSIS/OPINION:
President Obama gained a few more gray hairs on his noggin the past few days because the closed-mouthed folks in Ferguson, Missouri, ain’t saying nothin’ about nothin.’
The tear gas, military tanks and riot gear spoke on their behalf, making it look like a war zone instead of a majority-black suburb of St. Louis. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
What has happened and is happening in Ferguson is not about good versus evil, or an insurrection or bottom feeders trying to tear Jim Crow a new one.
Forgive the esoteric for a moment, but the Ferguson case is like some karmic kamikaze, with people doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different outcome.
Like most of us, Mr. Obama, a Democrat, probably would never have heard of Ferguson had a white cop not shot a black teen.
Hmm. Black teen shot by white police officer. How’s that for a familiar reality?
Another reality is that we have to assume the cop was white, we have to assume the cop is a man and we have to assume he is a bona fide, legitimate member of the police force.
We also have to assume that Michael Brown, the dead teen, was doing something illegal, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and that his mortal wound on Aug. 9 was at the hands of the unidentified white cop.
We also have to assume that Mr. Brown, 18, was unarmed.
We know so little.
We know the president weighed in on Thursday, blaming police for not raising the bar on their reaction to the protesters and looters.
He asked for cooler heads to prevail.
We know that is a tall order when we know so little.
Think about that.
Two journalists were arrested because they didn’t jump fast and high enough when law enforcers dressed like military warriors told them to jump — out of McDonald’s.
We know the governor, Jay Nixon, a Democrat, weighed in on Thursday, too, saying Missouri State Highway authorities would assume control of the law enforcement in Ferguson.
We know there have mistakenly been comparisons of Ferguson to other riotous and notable acts of civil disobedience, and we know there is no comparison.
There is no comparison — no fair, unbiased one that is — between civil rights activists peaceably assembling to walk across an Alabama bridge, a day notoriously called Bloody Sunday, and wickedness in Ferguson.
Ferguson is a small daggum city of about 21,000 residents, a small Midwestern city that happens to be majority black.
We know tempers are flaring, and we know why.
We also know the media played a key role in capturing and relaying to the pubic at large what peaceable assemblies truly look like.
And we know a war zone when we see one.
Ferguson is at war with itself.
Its residents, its business and civic leaders, and its clergy could show other American cities a thing or two if Ferguson decides to change itself.
To do that, it needs to start with the facts so people will stop assuming.
For all we know, a white police officer by the name of George Zimmerman shot Mr. Brown.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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