And then I wrote...

by Dick Schiling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that there is an old country song that starts out “we live in two different worlds.”

That’s the way I felt early last week when events unfolded in Missouri as the decision by the grand jury in the shooting death of Michael Brown approached, and then was announced Monday night.

Was there any doubt in anyone’s mind that rioting would follow if the grand jury failed to return a true bill against the police officer who did the shooting? Or maybe even if they did.

Because we were told for weeks that outside agitators were gathering in the Ferguson/Clayton area.

They were attracted by the nation-wide attention focused on the August shooting incident. Professional blacks such as Sharpton and race-baiting Attorney General Holder made sure the lens of the nation was focused on that area. As a youngster, we were taught what the focus of a magnifying lens can do. I think I burned my initials on every baseball bat I liked, my fielder’s glove and favorite slingshot. It wasn’t necessary to rub two Boy Scouts together to start a fire. A magnifying lens did it better.

After a night of rioting, the early morning light next day revealed a large section of Ferguson’s business district had burned down.

That’s why I doubt if it was the citizens of that area who lit the fires, but rather professional protesters. Area residents are victims. There is an old Spanish adage that was meant to discourage vicious gossip, which also applies here: “Do not muddy the waters around us. You may have to drink it some day.” Now, the citizens of that area see their community in ruins.

As I skipped through various talk shows the weekend before the decision, I arrived at one in time to hear a black guest (he may have been a minister, not sure) who convinced me he and I did not live in the same world. He said there had to be revenge for “that poor little black boy who was left dead on the street.”

Those who live in my world were informed that the shooting victim was anything but little, and in fact was described as a “gentle giant” by friends and family. He was 18, hardly a boy anymore, and had just roughed up a store clerk while stealing something from the store. The two views do not equate.

Now, is there any doubt but what Holder and his justice department will find some way to charge somebody with something, so as to justify his early interference in the police investigation?

And is there any doubt there will be protests in large cities and university communities in the days which follow?

That’s their world, and they are welcome to it!