Tuesday Voice: Reflections on Ferguson

Some problems

By Ed Rogers

I have been following the news from Ferguson, Missouri, as I’m sure a lot of you have, and while looking at what is happening today and what I have seen happen in the past, this is what I realized:
    The biggest problem is that white people cannot see the world through the eyes of a black person, and black, brown, red, yellow, etc. people cannot see it through the eyes of a white person.
    The way a person sees the world is not right or wrong – it only provides a picture of how we understand what is happening around us.
    If an animal is beaten every day, at some point it begins to wait and expect that beating. If that same animal is fed, loved, and cared for, then it will wait and expect tenderness. Both worlds are the real world – only the nature of the animals’ experience is different. Even if the beaten one and the loved one exchange places – the first one will expect the beating and the other will expect to be loved.
    We who are white expect justice, because on the whole we have always had it, while others have seen mostly injustice. While we may say we understand their rage, we don’t really understand it, for we have never felt the boot upon our neck.

I would like to say, however, that as much as people try to paint Michael Brown as a good kid, he struck me as a punk and a bully. But that doesn’t mean he should be killed – there are a lot of assholes out there and they are still walking around. Being an asshole doesn’t justify someone’s shooting you.
    I don’t want to judge [former] Officer Darren Wilson, but if he was as fearful of this person as he said he was, then why did he not wait for backup? Why did he get out of the car?
    I will, however, judge the way the case was handled. It should not be the job of a grand jury to judge guilt or innocence, only to find whether there is probable cause to proceed to trial. However, in this case, judging guilt or innocence seems to be what the grand jury was asked to do. Prosecutors lose cases all the time and, besides, they work for and are paid by the people. So if it was in the best interest of the people to have a trial, then that is what the grand jury should have decided. I, like most people, do not give a damn about Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch’s win-lose record.

Copyright © 2014 by Ed Rogers