Rural Thoughts

At least Mort Zuckerman took the night off. McLaughlin had a black woman - Michelle Benard - as the second liberal. Her main role was to be the black face to discuss the Martin shooting in Sanford, Florida. '

But the Martin shooting wasn't the first issue to be discussed. It was the republican nomination for president. No doubt that the republican mainstream is trying to rally around Romney. It remains to be seen whether or not the rest of party is going to follow them.

McLaughlin himself kept trying to make a big deal about the fact that Jeb Bush had endorsed Romney. And it wasn't so much because he had endorsed him, it was because it meant that he was taking himself out of the running for a convention draft. I thought McLaughlin was overplaying the significance of this, which is not much in my opinion.

You have to love the "etch-a-sketch" comment though, by one of Romney's top advisors. I mean, it was actually true. But it plays into a stereotype that the democrats have been hammering and the republicans have been fearing - that Romney only takes positions out of political expediency and never out of core belief.

The panel discussed the Martin shooting second. It was a mostly unenlightened discussion. Buchanan said things that I haven't heard on any media report. Who is he talking to? Ms. Benard did bring up one interesting tidbit that I didn't realize but which I've heard from other sources since - that the whole incident wasn't picked up by the mainstream media for a month and in that month it was the black media that wouldn't let it go. That is typical, but not good.

But all in all, what got missed, even by Ms. Benard (not completely) is that an individual who is a US citizens shouldn't have to answer to anyone as long as they are walking on a public sidewalk and not bothering anyone else or someone else's property.

It's the cloud of suspicion that black males are constantly under that is wrong. The fact is that Zimmerman did not treat Martin with that kind of respect that any citizen should be accustomed to as a matter of course. And yet, we speculate as if we don't know (but we should know) why it seems that black males just can't fit into society. It's amazing to me that our society can't see what is as clear as the nose on your face.

I'm not convinced that our society is going to deal responsibly with this situation. But if we don't, things will get worse. That is not the best option.