Part III. Taking Care of Everyone
Prelude
I would like to challenge you. If you identify as conservative, you will probably agree with my opening statements but then by the end, perhaps you will see something different. If you are a liberal, you are going to condemn me in the first few paragraphs and then rail against me without letting me finish. Keep reading to the end, both of you.
This is a series of posts I hope will shed some logical thinking on problems that charge people up. This hasn't worked well in the past as we saw when a guy from Google asked the unaskable questions. But I'm going to try anyway.
Part III: Taking Care of Everyone Would it surprise you that Rudi Juliani has a new charity where he is building schools in Italy? He's also protesting that kids in Italian neighborhoods are getting hassled by the cops and some are even getting shot.
It would surprise you because it would be odd and he isn't doing that as far as I know.
On the other handing, building schools where you need them isn't a bad thing. Not getting hassled or shot by the cops is a good thing too. So why are we not worried about those things everywhere. Oprah Winfrey builds schools in Africa. Great, they need them. But why not some other places, too? Kids right here in the US need them (thank you Lebron James, by the way — what a great effort). And there are other places in the world too.
I'm not specifically worried about black kids getting shot by cops. I'm worried about all kids getting shot by cops. A lot of times this moral indignation backfires too.
Take Rodney King. He seems like he's not a great guy but he didn't deserve the beat down he got from the cops. We saw a similar case in Houston where cops beat a teenage boy like crazy. Disgraceful. Here's the problem. In both cases, the DA charged the cops with attempted murder. Probably because if they didn't make that charge there would be a riot and calls of racism. The problem is there's no evidence the cops wanted to kill either of them. If they did they would have probably just shot them with a pistol. That happens all the time, right? So legally you probably can't make the burden of proof they were trying to kill either one of them. Assault? Yes. Abuse of power (a real crime in Texas but — I don't think — in California). Big yes. In California, the feds stepped in to charge them again for the same thing with a different name (civil rights violation) which probably violated their right against double jeopardy. I was taught in the US you don't just prosecute people until you make it stick — that the kind of thing that happens in evil countries. So yes those guys should have gone to jail. But charging them for a crime they didn't commit wasn't helpful.
I have one last observation. Look at the news coverage for the priests molesting so many boys here in the US. Now look at the news coverage for, say, Harvey Weinstein or Bill Cosby. Way out of proportion. Don't get me wrong. Harvey and Bill appear to have done very wrong and I hope they get what they deserve. But the priests aren't getting that kind of scrutiny by the public or the media.
My point is this. Everyone says they want everyone to be equal and treated fairly. Except everyone is picking sides. It shouldn't be about white kids, black kids, hispanic kids, or asian kids. It ought to be about American kids.
If we want to all be one people, we should all start acting like one people. If a kid is shot by the cops it shouldn't matter if he or she is white or black. If a person is molested by an authority figure, it shouldn't matter if that person is a man or a woman or if the attacker is Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, a hollywood producer, or a priest.
Until we get to the point that these things don't matter, we are doomed. Because we are setting ourselves up as separate teams. Our team is black or italian or women or LGBTQ or .... And that's wrong. It is true that black lives matter. Because lives matter. It is true that women should be safe from sexual harassment because all people should be safe from all kinds of harassment. If we have to pick a side, let's pick the side of all humanity.
Please share these links: Part 1: https://write.as/otsf7fgqgtk8p.md Part 2: https://write.as/o0ayexhoygdr2.md Part 3: https://write.as/vpq6gsa2syk3q.md