![\"ferguson-mo-welcome-sign-63135\"](\"https:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3908\/14969658471_c9150d008f_m.jpg\")
Whenever black Americans take to the streets over police brutality and killings, racist email forwards follow. Over the past week I’ve gotten two, both claiming the media ignores black on white crime out of political correctness. What world do these people live in? Since when has the press ignored black on white crime? I think what they\u00a0really mean is they wish the press would just ignore\u00a0a certain\u00a0white on black crime\u00a0that took place in Ferguson, Missouri.<\/p>\n
I’m sick of hearing naive\u00a0do-gooders say racism\u00a0will go away when\u00a0the last of the\u00a0old white bigots die off, just you wait. Bullshit. Those old white bigots taught their children, and their children are teaching\u00a0their<\/em> children.\u00a0Racism is everywhere in this country, as pervasive as it ever was. Not only is it not going away, it’s arguably\u00a0getting worse, as\u00a0voting restrictions and the return of segregated schools nudge\u00a0us back toward the 1950s.<\/p>\n The story on Michael Brown, the 18-year-old shot dead by a Ferguson policeman, keeps changing. Just this morning I read that the video showing Brown stealing cigarillos actually shows him paying for them.\u00a0People are already disputing the\u00a0autopsy results\u00a0that came out over the weekend.\u00a0By this time tomorrow the story might\u00a0take yet another direction. So I’ll say nothing about any of that, and wait for the dust to settle.<\/p>\n I do believe, however, that when people take to the streets, it’s usually not over a single incident of police brutality or extrajudicial killing.\u00a0That\u00a0shit happens all the time; there’d be riots every day. When people do demonstrate and protest, it’s usually in communities where there’s a long history of police abuse, followed by some straw-breaking-the-camel’s-back incident like the Michael Brown shooting.<\/p>\n When I was young\u00a0I lived for\u00a0a year\u00a0at\u00a0my grandparents’ house in Brentwood, another inner-ring St. Louis suburb. This was during the 1950s\u00a0while my\u00a0father was away with the USAF\u00a0and my mother was in a sanitarium recovering from tuberculosis. My memories of Brentwood are so faded they might as well be made up, but the brief glimpses of Ferguson I see on TV remind me of Brentwood. I turned to\u00a0Wikipedia, where I was surprised to read that as of the 2010 census, Brentwood was still 87% white. I’m going to guess relations between\u00a0law enforcement and the civilian population in Brentwood are friendly.<\/p>\n ——————–<\/p>\n A former squadron mate and flying buddy has died, and Donna and I are driving to Alamogordo, New Mexico on Thursday to attend his funeral. I flew with him at Soesterberg Air Base in the Netherlands; following\u00a0that tour he and I\u00a0were the first two F-15 pilots to report to Elmendorf AFB in Alaska when the fighter squadron there converted from Phantoms to Eagles. Many, many memories, all of them good. Alamogordo is only 400 miles from here, so we’re paying our respects in person. I don’t know who else is planning to attend, but I expect we’ll see one or two old friends. When we were in Alaska we were pretty close to our friend’s surviving wife, and we both want to see her again.<\/p>\n As for now, I’m hunkered down at home, waiting for the next monsoon rain cell to pass overhead. Here’s a photo I took driving home from the gym half an hour ago, looking down on our housing development and toward the Santa Catalina Mountains, with some heavy rain falling a few streets to the north.<\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5596\/14786005220_af05cea973.jpg\" "\\"click")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"