America - Dallas

I wake up this morning to headlines about snipers shooting 11 Dallas policemen at a demonstration. 5 are dead. Normally, I would wait a day or 2, think matters over, then write about it, but, today, I am just going to go with first reactions.

The odd thing is, I am not even shocked. Actually, I find myself wondering why this has not happened before. This killing, while abhorrent, has been building for a long time. I bend over backwards to give the police the benefit of the doubt when shootings occur. God knows, they have an absurdly hard job and are often required to make life and death decisions. They do not always get them right. None of us are perfect.

But, over the last year or 2, there have been a whole lot of folks killed by cops and a good number have been killed for little or no reason. Something has gone horribly wrong.

Now, there has been a response, a response other than picketing and filing law suits. It was a viscous response and while no civilized person can condone it, can anyone truly be surprised by it? I am just surprised it took this long. That is the sorry state we have sunk to.

We are a culture that worships wealth and power. Violence is always, at some level, a tool used by those wanting wealth and power. This was true when we slaughtered the Native Americans, when Lincoln let Grant send Sherman on his March to the Sea, when Carnegie hired thugs to stop Union organizers, when the National Guard shot kids at Kent State and Jackson State, and when we let the CIA run amok in Latin America, Indonesia, the Mid East and Southeast Asia.

Folks, when pushed, will sometimes push back. Not always, sometimes they will just roll over and play dead, playing possum its called. Well, if you have ever tried to pick up a possum playing dead, you know that said possum will then fight and they are very good at it. (Trust me; they have nasty little teeth and sharp little claws. Oh yeah, they carry rabies too).

I believe that we are about to enter a strange new period. A small group has no hope of winning a battle against a massive force but, they can annoy them to death. They can hit, here and there, until they destroy the will of the large force. We learned this, or should have, in Vietnam. The Soviets learned this in Afghanistan. Terrorists are using this tactic to great effect all over the World. Folks, we have a problem.

I believe that we will see acts such as last nights happen more and more as this once reasonably united society, continues to splinter. It will be ugly. Watch your back. Watch out for your family and friends and neighbors. Learn what areas to avoid and stay away. It is awful but, we are about to enter a whole new reality in what's  left of  this once great Country.