I agree that Wizard Marks has some very fine points as does Michael Lomker and this lines initiator LYDIA HOWELL. However I wish to ask all list members a question;
When do we take responsibility for our own lives and actions? If I am going to get confrontational with a police officer I should take control of my own actions. If I endanger someone else and or have my actions cause others to be in harms way, I am to blame. In the heat of passion or otherwise, I am still the one to blame. If someone "looks at me funny" or even punches me, I have the choice to react out of rage or to use my head and address the situation after having taken a deep breath. A police officer accused of intentionally pepper spraying a child is to be punished - if he or she were to go searching through a crowd passing by people one by one until they found the child and without provocation "maced" the child. If the child is in the hands of someone who is acting out of rage and this is directed at the police person - then the fault lies squarely on the person who chose to endanger the child, knowingly or not! And when we in a frenzied state of mind take words of a person who is swelled with rage and follow them, then we are at fault for taking hearsay as our basis for truth. Or did I miss something in the translation of last month's "riot" being caused by public outrage that police "shot an innocent boy". Who put the child in harms way? Who cited a bullet piercing this innocent child's flesh and mortal wounds being inflicted to further frenzy the crowds of people? Or was it something else? Will that person stand up and take credit for causing the frenzy? Who is to blame when an adult when instructed to stop by a police officer after being chased for a weapons possession turns and points this weapon at an armed police officer, who then fires upon someone who is perceived to be a dangerous suspect to begin with? Is someone else to blame for his actions? Did you put that gun in his hand? If you want to bring in outside federal mediation we must first be willing to take responsibility for our actions and faults. No negotiation, no settlement and no resolution is binding until we approach the table in earnest - without reservation. On such a somber day as today - let peace and harmony grow within us all. So let's all say this together, - "And let it begin with me". God Bless, Valdis Rozentals Saint Anthony West _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
