Now editorializing at The Southern, former Twin Falls Times-News opinion editor Jon Alexander writes:
Baltimore, Ferguson, Staten Island. A rage that I'll never comprehend is at work here. And, until white America accepts that none of us can truly understand it, we are the problem. Rioters clashed with Baltimore police Monday following the funeral for 25-year-old Freddie Gray, yet another young black man killed during a run-in with police. School children peppered cops with cinder blocks. Six officers were seriously injured, officials said. And, as Baltimore burned, white America, yet again, sat and watched. But we did more than sit idly by. White America did what it does best: take to social media to gripe. Those "thugs" looting shops need to get a job. Those "animals" should be taught a lesson. It's the same drivel -- employing the same code words reserved for the dark-skinned -- that overtook social media after Ferguson erupted when Officer Darren Wilson was cleared of wrongdoing in Michael Brown's shooting.
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.
can truly understand it, we are the problem. Rioters clashed with Baltimore police Monday following the funeral for 25-year-old Freddie Gray, yet another young black man killed during a run-in with police. School children peppered cops with cinder blocks. Six officers were seriously injured, officials said. And, as Baltimore burned, white America, yet again, sat and watched. But we did more than sit idly by. White America did what it does best: take to social media to gripe. Those "thugs" looting shops need to get a job. Those "animals" should be taught a lesson. It's the same drivel -- employing the same code words reserved for the dark-skinned -- that overtook social media after Ferguson erupted when Officer Darren Wilson was cleared of wrongdoing in Michael Brown's shooting.
