Black, Brutalizing Black

WHAT DISTINGUISHES our most recent instance of police brutality is that not only is the victim African-American, as per usual, but the so are the police officers, five in number. I set my alarm for three A.M., intending to hear the hourly news on National Public Radio, to find out whether America's cities were in fire,, and if so, which of them in particular had burned, and to what extent. With relief I was informed that the nationwide protests were not well attended, were relatively few in number, and relatively peaceful, as prescribed by the family of the dead victim. I attributed this to the fact that all the police officers involved were black. Had they been white, real trouble might have erupted, becasue we have become acccustomed to a racist component to our police brutality, and here there was apparently none. Instances of police brutality in the United States, like instances of mass murder, are endemic, and have long been so. Each time the public responds with thoughts, prayers, and expressions of horrified shock and indignation. It is perhaps time for the public to maintain this state of mind continuously, and for our national ensign to fly at perpetual half staff. Of even more immediate necessity is our national need to recognize the systemc persistence of hatred and violence in a culture founded upon violence and exploitation, a culture in which police departments were first foremed inthe eighteen thirties in Eastern cities for the expressed purpose of preserving the institution of slavery and white supremacy, vestiges of which linger to this day.... "Evil follows Whosoever speaks or acts with wicked mind, just as the wheel follows the hoof of the draft ox. Whosoever speaks or acts with pure mind will know happiness, even as the shadow which never leaves. This is a law eternal... He beat me, he abused me, he defeated me, he robbed me. The hatred of those who harbor such thoughts is never appeased. He beat me, he abused me, he defeated me, he robbed me. The hatred of those who do not harbor such thoughts is always appeased"..... Our modern American culture requires for its healing considerably more than ancient Buddhist scripture from the Dhammapada, obviously. It requires systemic reform at the most fundamental level. But a nation of pure minds replacing a nation of wicked, hatred filled minds, filled with petty vindictive thoughts would, if nothing else, be a place to start. The national disease is deeply embedded. we Americans must take a long, hard look at ourselves, a process much overdo, if painful, for fear of what we might see, and revealing. As Nietschze said: "If thou gaze deep into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into thee".