SOUTH FLORIDA – The killing of scores of people in France on Thursday (July 14) suggests terrorism has become a way of life, and in particular, in France.
Wall to wall coverage of the incident again played out across mainly Cable Network News Thursday evening.
Thanks to my High School Headmaster, I have long held a special affection for France and the people I know some personally.
Yet, we should not allow another incident, horrific as it is to distract us from what continues to play out in this country.
It is about time for this country to seek ways to understand what has prompted people, some of them Black to have now developed a pattern of making threats against the lives of police officers.
In his television show of decades ago, the character Fred Sanford declared less than innocently, that he believed the top killer of Black men was not some disease, but police officers. That was on network television in the 1970s!
What also needs to be gleaned is that a young Black man in 2016 thinks completely differently from that same person of even the 1970s.
This young man not only has no fear, but in many cases has no hope.
That young man who believes he is not going to live beyond his 21st birthday, but has seen images of privilege and wealth does not think like a pacifist, and again I say, dreaded weapons are so easily available today that that alone makes this country way more scary than even the most hopeful among us want to believe.
Voice your opinion on the “Open Line” with Winston Barnes daily on WAVS 1170AM or listen on-line http://wavs1170.com/
Photo Credit: Leroy “Dreamy” Riley
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