Driving home one recent night I inadvertently punched in a radio station offering the local news, that eternal barrage of murders, fires, and car crashes.\u00a0 I would\u2019ve turned to something more stimulating but was startled by the strident voice, half way to a yell, of a lady who in this story will be called Ann Jones.\u00a0 She was railing that her eighteen-year old son and his friend the same age had been arrested only because they were black.\u00a0 There was no evidence the two had walked up to the open door of a garage where five young white men were playing cards, demanded the keys to a vehicle, received the keys, but still decided to open fire, killing one man and wounding three.\u00a0 The police aren\u2019t telling the truth, Ann Jones said.\u00a0 Her son wasn\u2019t a gang member.\u00a0 And he\u2019d never shoot anyone.\u00a0 The young card players must have had an argument that turned violent.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s plenty of Wild West in America but there aren\u2019t any card games in which four of five players are wounded by each other.\u00a0 The crime theory of Ann Jones will therefore not be given consideration in court.\u00a0 Neither will her assertion that whites don\u2019t care when blacks are the victims of violence and only worry when those carried away are white. \u00a0Ann Jones will be given a temporary pass for her racist outburst since her son and his friend will likely be put on trial for murder and potentially face the death penalty.\u00a0 It is also probable she has seen her son in freedom for the last time.\u00a0 And it\u2019s certain some who will serve on the jury have already been unfavorably influenced by her effort to incriminate those who were shot.<\/p>\n
Whether or not her son is guilty as accused, the statement of Ann Jones provokes some painful concerns.\u00a0 Are slavery and its legacy responsible for the slaughter in inner cities and elsewhere?\u00a0 History is part of the problem.\u00a0 But how much?\u00a0 And for how long?\u00a0 When is it time to declare that people who live in a community are responsible for its condition?\u00a0 Who, Ann Jones, has damaged countless neighborhoods nationwide?\u00a0 Who is making babies seventy percent out of wedlock?\u00a0 Who is allowing alarming numbers of kids to ignore their homework and drop out of school?\u00a0 Who is choosing to join gangs and commit crimes?<\/p>\n
Some things people can only do to themselves.\u00a0 And only they can change the course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Driving home one recent night I inadvertently punched in a radio station offering the local news, that eternal barrage of murders, fires, and car crashes.\u00a0 I would\u2019ve turned to something more stimulating but was startled by the strident voice, half way to a yell, of a lady who in this story will be called Ann…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,145,16,10,28],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n