Victimization

1968 Baltimore riots - 2015 wasn't the first time

Feel free to correct me if I'm missing something, but three attitudes seem to be common in every human being I've ever come across who has hit rock bottom:

• My situation is totally someone else's fault.
• I'm unfairly getting the short end of the stick.
• I can do whatever I want.

These are very selfish words to live by.   No man is an island.   We all have to depend on others to some extent.   Life is not fair.   Much of it is beyond our control.   That reality is no excuse for sitting idly by in the face of injustice.   There are things we can control.   Sometimes we find people who illustrate magnificently how to make the best out of the hand we've been dealt.

As I watched the ongoing news coverage of the riots in Baltimore, I saw a lot of examples of selfish acts with looting and ignoring the pleas for nonviolence.   One person asked what the difference was between these riots in a major city or wanton destruction after a college basketball game.   There is none.   Thugs are thugs.

The news media gets blamed for fanning the flames of violence.   That is a price for a free press I'm willing to pay.   CNN deserves major kudos when they interviewed a 30-year veteran whose service dates back to Vietnam.   He was standing up to out of control rioters, telling them to go home where they belong and to stop disrespecting the memory of a possible victim of police brutality or neglect.   His bottom line: "I am an American."

When I hear angry voices, I hear people who feel 100 per cent victimized.   It doesn't just apply to young African Americans in big cities.   Fox News is happy to drum up the idea that their target audience has done all it can to look out for others and is now victimized by everything from being white to religious persecution to total gun confiscation.   The urban rioters sadly ignore the fact that they will only make their situation more desperate by burning down their own neighborhood businesses.   My concern is how this will push the disconnect between two segments of America to even greater levels.