The American Spring.

Absolutely, ma'am! Whether or not I like the outcome is immaterial, since it's not my outcome to either deliver or experience. I can't say it's "wrong", because I don't have a dog in the fight, so to speak, and so I have no real say in the matter. All I'm saying is that as a "disinterested observer" (meaning I've got no personal stake in the outcome either way) they are doing it wrong if they desire a lasting outcome. Whether or not it is "wrong" to do is not my place to determine. Stolen shoes and handbags and pills won't last.... having your baby sister NOT shot in the street by a scared or pissed off cop would be, in my mind, a much more lasting outcome. I hear a lot of "we want to change society" - but if this is an example of what they want to change it TO, I'm going to have to continue to take a pass on it, and just stand back watching them go.

Yes, ma'am, we DO appear to be standing on opposite sides of the camp, but that's not a BAD thing, either. What a boring world it would be if we all agreed, all the time. If that were the case, all of us but one would be entirely unnecessary - most of the human race would be superfluous if all had one mind. We each stake out sides on what we think to be correct, and there is no dishonor in each defending the position he or she takes. What I'm getting out of this so far is that most if not all think there needs to be a "change" in the way we do things in America - we are just disagreeing on methods to effect that change. I didn't come from Baltimore ( I knew a girl from there, and she was downright scary, but that ain't the same as me being from there myself), but I'm not a stranger to "the hood", either... just not the one in Baltimore. Most of those I've lived in are pretty much basically the same, with only slight regional variations.

I was actually born in the Hough neighborhood, on Woodland Avenue, but we left there when I was real young, went to the south of Cleveland. People got real nervous around there when the riots burned Hough down, and just a couple years after that we moved WAY south to get away from potential complications of the tensions building. That's how I wound up here in the Appalachians - I'm a "naturalized" hillbilly. Since I came of age, I've been out and all over the world, mostly in "those" neighborhoods (most recently in Kansas City), and that's exactly why I'm back here again. There's nothing out there for me - at least nothing I want - and this is the only place I've ever found a relative peace, so here I am.

Standing on my streets is fine, but interrrupting my dinner or shouting in my face would be a no-go at this station. If that's the only way folks have of getting their "message" across, there's nothing in that message that needs to be heard. Those sorts of activities are what MAKE "beating and tazing necessary" to begin with. If one cannot deliver their message in a rational manner, they should not expect a rational response, because irrationality begets more irrationality. This is something the citizens, and particularly the cops, in Baltimore are learning this instant - if the lesson takes. I harbor doubts about that. Indiscriminate mayhem begets more indiscriminate mayhem, and the cycle never stops until someone stands to stop it. To me, it's s senseless exercise to alienate those very people you would want on your side. Shouting at strangers just trying to eat is not the best way I can think of to make friends and influence people... that just pisses them off even more, drives them to the opposite side.

I am amazed that people seem to be unable to comprehend that. Humans really ARE strange critters.

So you see, I don't think it's the responsibility of others to do so... I think instead it's a spectacular demonstration of IRRESPONSIBLITY. Very different indeed form actually trying to accomplish a change in society. The "change" that engenders is not the change they claim to want. maybe it's a sort of "unintended consequence", but it goes right back to your opening sentence - "I live in the world of 'be careful what you wish for' and that entails the real life issues and consequences that come with this life. "

We don't appear to disagree on the outcomes we claim to want, we just disagree on the methods that we believe will get us there.