Perspective

Mine vs......

I was driving in my car on my way to work when I heard Daniel Schorr on the radio. He was doing his "Week in Review" on NPR's "Weekend Edition - Saturday". Now normally I just plain disagree with him. This morning however....I wanted to drive my car into the studio where he was speaking, run him over, back up and run over him again. LOL He was speaking about the beer summit and how we are not yet a post racial country, whatever the eff that is.

SIMON: A neighborhood incident - ordinarily - in Cambridge, Massachusetts, became a national story this week because it involved a distinguished Harvard professor, Henry Lewis Gates Jr.

SCHORR: Right.

SIMON: He was arrested for disorderly conduct outside of his home in Cambridge. Police were called to the house to investigate a possible break-in. Professor Gates says that he and his driver were forcing open the front door of his own house. The door was jammed. Now, this is where versions differ because, of course, the Cambridge police accuse the professor of being obstreperous and uncooperative with the officer. Professor Gates says…

SCHORR: But nobody differs on what the president then did: plunged himself into the act at the end of a news conference, the purpose of which was to talk about health care. And if anybody could do immense distraction from health care, it was the president himself. And I'm sure he must have wondered later what led him to do it.
Well, I suspect it is time to say that this country is not yet finished with racial profiling and that's - a great deal of sensitivity to anything that sounds like it. And so when professor Gates got an impression that he was being treated in a way that maybe white people trying to break open the lock on their door would not have been treated, when they realized what was involved there - we are looking at people acting as they used to act and which we hoped was over, especially with an African-American president. But racial profiling lives, or the fear of it.

SIMON: Well, I was struck by the reaction of the Cambridge police officer, who took special exception to the charge that he was racially profiling.

SCHORR: Well, that's right. The thing…

SIMON: And that also carries a very heavy sting.

SCHORR: Yeah...
(Soundbite of laughter)

SCHORR: There are so many ironies involved in this. Sergeant Crowley, the officer in question, was the one who was in charge of briefing the police on racial profiling. Here's a president who - we know where he stands. And everybody acts out a part, as though we were in some former age.

Everyone acts out a part? Once again, someone speaks as though everyone in this incident is equally culpable. Because to do otherwise is to admit that Gates is not a victim and Obama is an assclown.

I haven't said a lot here although frequent readers can guess where I stand. But for the sake of clarity - Gates was an asshat. Now I will cut him some slack because of the long flight and being startled. But the next morning he should have simply LET. IT. GO. Gates is minorly wrong for what he did during the incident. I say minorly because losing your temper is something that could happen to anyone. Mistaking the motives of the police is an easy leap to make. If you really know me, then you know I am no blind cheerleader of police conduct. My mother taught me long ago. "The police are not your friends." They have job to do and some do it better than others. That said, the next morning Gates, if he is so smart, knew he was in the wrong and he should have STFU.

Obama, what can I say here other than there is a reason that "3rd man in" is a automatic game misconduct in hockey. And to preface it with "I don't know all the facts, but....." Good. God.

So who's left here? Oh yeah. Crowley. The guy who played it by the book and bears no responsibility for the cluster this has become. Crowley, the guy that looked absolutely betrayed when people asked him about Obama. Crowley, the guy who has done more to bring about a racially just society then the other two pinheads combined. Crowley, who has been an absolute class act all through this hullabaloo.

I just can't decide if Daniel Schorr is senile or willfully misleading people. After all, we know that if you say a thing often enough.....