Mouth-Worrying About Racism

            Too many people in the public eye are mouth-worrying about the niceties of racial politeness—meaning they say the words, but don’t really give a rat’s whisker.  If they did, they would be working to end the systemic bias that taints the lives of racial minorities, and the economic disaster that keeps them poor.  And of course, the poor sometimes riot and loot, and occasionally steal, so policing in some places is sometimes brutal and militarized to strike terror into their hearts. 

            Meanwhile the BIG thieves manipulate currency and evade billions in taxes, going without substantial punishment when caught, and lobby their way to even greater riches, and throw delightful cocktail parties, while the LITTLE thieves, the ones who riot and loot, and steal what they can carry, and the LITTLE criminals, the ones born of hunger and squalor, who suffer 50% unemployment and do drugs you don’t find in a martini glass, these little ones get sent to for-profit prisons to become part of America’s record-breaking crowd of hopeless apprentices.  Seems like a bizarre aberration.

            Around here, we think the I-got-mine “leaders” in Federal and State Government need to stop all the stupid mouth-worrying and put America to work on parks, roads, bridges and other infrastructure.  Maybe if we get enough people working and prospering, we can start to deal with the hate that fuels our real problem of racism.  We might even find that America’s symbols of treason and hate just quietly become unacceptable.  Certainly that should be the fate of mouth-worrying.