A detective was interviewed by Fox. He was a very fit, well-dressed, barely-middle aged black man with close-cropped hair. He spoke disparagingly of "outside agitators" who'd come to Ferguson to make trouble. He said that locals were anxious to see that normalcy be restored, especially small business owners who'd seen their businesses take a hit.
I don't know the politics of Ferguson or if the resignations of six top officials should satisfy the demonstrators. They are calling for the resignation of the mayor, who said he would remain on the job.
That comment about "outside agitators" struck me. It was outside agitators who had joined Martin Luther King Jr as he attempted to cross the Edmund Bettus bridge in Selma, Alabama 50 years ago. Governor George Wallace had spoken derisively of "outside agitators," as had numerous mayors and governors across the South. They assured the world that they were capable of solving their own problems without having to suffer from the interference or pressure of outsiders.
Hearing this black detective deride outside agitators was doubly ironic:
First, he was channeling the words of racist officials uttered 50 years ago,
and the two police officers who'd been shot were not locals - they were outsiders.
As a Buddhist, I despise violence. But I am forced to note that Dr. King's non-violent civil rights movement would not have succeeded in the long run if the white establishment didn't at least worry that this movement could take a violent turn. And that there were blacks outside his movement who had guns and were willing to use them.
I remember radicals within Nelson Mandela's movement who had planted bombs with the intention of damaging the government's infrastructure. No one was supposed to get killed, but at least one innocent bystander was. The intention was to get the attention of the authorities, to show them they had something to fear. Especially, if the radicals were to decide to escalate their activities.
In my own case, I have never engaged in or been a victim of violence - with two exceptions. I was in a fist fight in the seventh grade - I lost. And I had been jumped, along with my brother, by four young men 35 years ago. I got banged up pretty good, but I managed to bite the nose of one of my attackers. My brother, who knew martial arts, took care of the others.
Looking back on my life, I took an inventory of the many in positions of authority who had abused me, against whom I could not retaliate. But I found out later that most of them had suffered a profound reversal of fortune. It is written in the Lotus Sutra - and here I paraphrase: "If one hurls insults to the Buddha's face for 1,000 years, he will suffer severe recompense for this action. But if one directs even one insulting or disparaging word against a man who embraces the Lotus Sutra, his punishment will be much more severe."
I have found that to be true in my case, with one man being suddenly struck by a brain cancer that killed him in short order. While it's true that I myself have been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and given only five to eight months to live, I'm still here 30 months later - much to the amazement of my oncologist. And my current condition is stable and non-life threatening.
I don't think the natives of Ferguson, Missouri are going to convert to Buddhism any time soon. Though I am amazed that the Black man has adopted the religion of his slave masters. Can't get over how many Black Baptists there are. But being a practical sort, I thought of a solution. I think the federal government should set up sting operations with the intention of catching local cops behaving badly. The initiation of these operations should be well-advertised in advance, though only the feds would know the details and set up and control the environment of these stings.
I think cops far too often are the beneficiaries of local and state official agencies and sympathetic citizens all-too-eager to look the other way. That shit's gotta stop.
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Steven Searle, just another member of the
Virtual Samgha of the Lotus and
Former Candidate for US President (2008 & 2012)
Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com
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