Debate about Gun Control

[Bob Butler 54]

(07-01-2016, 07:31 AM)Anthony Wrote: But let's not forget who started this: The Communist terrorist Black Panthers, Black Liberation Army, etc., who shot thousands of cops in the back in the late 1960s and '70s.

Payback is a bitch - ain't it?

"This" goes back an awful long way.  You can go all the way back to dominant black African tribes kidnapping members of weaker black tribes and selling the captives to the white folk on the coast.  Along the way, an awful lot of people died, notably during the US Civil War.  Lots of blood spilled and bad blood.  Lots of just cause.  Lots of times when people figured they were superior and had a good thing going, and wanted it to continue.  Lots of government backed prejudice and persecution.  Lots of anger in response.

It is easy if one is locked into one particular viewpoint on such a complex issue to focus on things that support that viewpoint and neglect things the diminish it.  That's human nature, alas.  It is not, however, constructive if one wants to really understand the problem, resolve the conflict and move on.

There was the beginning of a spiral of violence back in the Awakening.  It's history.  It has little to do with today's racist violence by the authorities.  An active effort to suppress the Black Panthers won't be constructive.  The new Panthers aren't the old Panthers.  Different style and focus.  It might be easy to say the Panthers ought to be forgiven and forgot, but then then should the KKK lynch mobs be forgiven and forgot too?  Arguably, some things can't be and should not be forgotten.  Still, the focus ought to be on todays's problems and today's injustices.  Who is murdering who today?  We can't bring the strange fruit back to life, but something might be done about today's equivalents.  The past isn't going to go away, and there is an awful lot of ugly in the history books, but let's keep our eyes on today's problems.