You know, I was asked by an NPR reporter once why don’t I talk about race that often. I said, “It’s because I’m a neurosurgeon.” And she thought that was a strange response . . . I said, “You see, when I take someone to the operating room, I’m actually operating on the thing that makes them who they are. The skin doesn’t make them who they are. The hair doesn’t make them who they are. And it’s time for us to move beyond that because . . . our strength as a nation comes in our unity. – Dr. Ben Carson, Closing Statement, GOP Presidential Candidate Debate, Fox News, August 6, 2015
Thursday night, 24 million Americans tuned in to Fox News to watch a multitude of Republican Presidential Candidate Hopefuls attempt to distinguish themselves from one another.
Some are saying that it was the biggest audience ever for a Prime Time Television Program.
Why were Americans so anxious to watch a bunch of professional politicians (with two noteworthy exceptions) preen and pontificate in front of the cameras, reiterating political stances, which they have already taken?
I believe that the answer to that question is a simple one:
The overwhelming majority of Americans are concerned about the future existence of the Land of the Brave and the Home of the Free.
The same day that a political game of one-upmanship was being played out in front of that huge national audience, a much more serious event was being played out in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
Memphis police officer Sean Bolton was remembered Thursday as a man of compassion but “bold as a lion” when it came to the community he swore to protect.
The Marine who excelled in wrestling and football at White Station High School and equally embraced a love of languages and books, was shot and killed Saturday while on duty.
Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong told mourners inside Bellevue Baptist Church during Bolton’s memorial service that this was the third one of his officers to die in the line of duty over the last four years, and this grim statistic has “devastated” him.
“We all have our relationship with God, and so I talked to God and asked him, ‘Why me, God?’ What are you trying to tell me?’
“And just as clearly as I am talking to you, God said, ‘Son, this has nothing to do with you.’”
Armstrong said he continued to have a “pity party” for himself until he heeded God’s words and thought about Bolton and the other officers in his department.
“I was going to write a speech, but I realized that Sean deserved so much more from me than a speech,” Armstrong said.
He said God told him to deliver a message instead to the Bolton family and the citizens of Memphis.
“I have the awesome responsibility of your public safety. There are 2,000 officers under my command that I demand the best of from each of them every day,” Armstrong said. “Let me make it clear to each and every citizen: We are not your enemy. When most people run away, we run to.”
Armstrong’s words garnered a standing ovation from the officer’s who filled the lower half of the Cordova church that seats 6,500.
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton was the first speaker during the 11 a.m. service. Wharton said “Officer’s Bolton’s death was an offense to God, his family and each of us.” As the mayor spoke, some officers walked out.
One officer, who did not want to be identified, said they left because they are upset with cuts by the city to the pension and benefits, which caused several officers to leave the force.
“We have had so many officers leave because of the cuts,” the officer said. “We are not at full complement. We are angry because we feel if we were at full complement then these young guys like Officer Bolton would not have had to ride alone.”
Last Saturday, while checking an illegally parked 2002 Mercedes-Benz on a residential street in Parkway Village, Bolton was shot multiple times and later died from the wounds at the hospital.
After two days on the run, Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, the man accused of killing Bolton, surrendered to authorities in downtown Memphis Monday.
Wilbourn, charged with first-degree murder, is in jail on a $10 million bond.
Bolton, who would have turned 34 on Friday, was with the department five years, joining the force in October, 2010. He worked on the “D” Shift at Mt. Moriah station.
His colleagues from Mt. Moriah spoke at the service, comparing Bolton’s dedication and high-energy to that of the “Tasmanian devil” and the “Energizer Bunny.”
Some two hour before his service began, officers locally and from far away as New York filled the parking lot at the church.
Dressed in their starched uniforms, wearing white gloves and with black tape or cloth over their badges to honor Bolton, they came to say goodbye to one of their own.
“This hits home for us,” said Officer Raul Dallas with the North Little Rock Police Department. “Officer Bolton was someone’s child, someone’s brother. He was our brother. We are here to support the Memphis Police Department and the officer’s family to let them know we stand behind them.”
Officer Bolton is survived by his mother and three siblings as well as thousands of brothers and sisters in blue, said Rev. Don Riley, a friend of the Bolton family, who delivered the eulogy.
Riley wore pink socks in Bolton’s memory because the officer often wore the socks to church — part of Bolton’s character as a practical joker. Riley told the officers not to be angry about Bolton’s death.
“Jesus was not on vacation last Saturday when he called Sean home,” Riley said. “We are here to honor Sean’s name. His name should be etched in the memory of every supporter.”
During the past several years, there has been an undeniable escalation of the Rhetoric of Racial Animus and Class Warfare, the origin of which can be traced, with very little effort, to the President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, the “one”, who was supposed to unite us as a nation and make the oceans “rise and fall”
Suffice it to say, neither one of those predictions came to pass.
Instead, we got garbage like this, posted on WashingtonPost.com on March 6th:
In his first comments since the Justice Department released a report earlier this week detailing racial bias in the Ferguson, Mo., police department, President Obama called Friday for “collective action and mobilization” to resolve tensions between minority communities and law enforcement.
“I think that there are circumstances in which trust between communities and law enforcement have broken down, and individuals or entire departments may not have the training or the accountability to make sure that they’re protecting and serving all people and not just some,” he said on the Joe Madison Radio Show on Sirius XM Friday. “…I don’t think that is typical of what happens across the country, but it’s not an isolated incident.”
Since then, violence has erupted in New York City and Baltimore.
Why do we have so many out there who are calling for “dead cops”, while protesting over the deaths of criminals?
Even in Memphis, family and friends of the “alleged” cop killer have started a “GoFundMe”-style fundraising account for his defense, claiming that the cold-blooded murder of Office Sean Bolton was a case of self-defense.
How did we get to this point?
By the time President Johnson came into office, after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the majority of Americans totally believed that our government always had our best interest at heart.
President Johnson came into office and immediately started his push for the Great Society. These programs were designed to make Americans even more dependent on the Federal Government for their very survival.
As the Vietnam War grew more and more and unpopular, Americans’ trust in the government became more and more compromised. Protests against the Federal Government became more and more common and it became cool to be a rebel or “hippie”.
Time passed, and while rebellious Americans calmed down, Americans’ dependence upon government programs became generational, as multiple family members from one generation to the next, relied on Uncle Sugar for their daily existence.
Meanwhile, the rebels of the 1960’s got older and began to work within the system, taking jobs within the private and public sectors.
Eventually, they moved into positions of power, becoming heads of corporations and local and national politicians.
It is not really necessary to tell you what the political ideology of these rebels was, is it?
As the last century ended and the new one began, these hippies and their offspring, solidly in place in the halls of power, began to pass more legislation designed to keep generations of Americans enslaved to Uncle Sugar.
In this present situation, what we are seeing is the result of anti-establishment rhetoric, spewed forth by those who are now actually “the Establishment”, taking hold, and spreading Class Envy and Racial Animus in such a way as to inspire violent retaliation for perceived “grievances”, by a fictional “White Establishment”, which is actually no longer in power, and the Police, who are seen as the emissaries of “The Man”.
Meanwhile, the Community Organizer-in-Chief is on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard AT THE EXPENSE OF AMERICAN TAXPAYERS.
It’s reminiscent of Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
Look it up, y’all.
In conclusion, I believe that the popularity of entrepreneur and showman Donald J. Trump and Dr. Ben Carson’s Closing Statement, which has gone “viral”, are a result of an American Citizenry who are fed up with watching our “House” being divided against itself for the sake of Political Expediency.
Until He Comes,
KJ
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