I live in St. Paul, across the Mississippi River from Minneapolis.

[Tom Rinaldo]

42. A thousand times Yes.

When all rational responses to an absolutely intolerable reality are seemingly exhausted, seemingly irrational and intolerable reactions will increasingly emerge. I remember the race riots of the 60's. They were lawless. Innocent people suffered as a result of them. In the short term conditions for those where riots broke out significantly worsened rather than improving. But they could not be understood outside of the context of a deplorable racist status quo that had gone on in America for untold decades previously.

Yes peaceful protests had "moved the ball forward", but not that far and not that rapidly. America, as it turned out, needed the "shock treatment" that some outbreaks of violence provided. An urgent new outbreak of inter racial dialog followed closely on the heels of racial civil unrest in the 60's.

Resistance to true racial justice was then (and still is) deeply ingrained in America. Most white Americans are sadly too prone to slipping into passive acceptance of a status quo that they can easily live with even if members of minority communities in America can not. Shock treatment is an absolute last resort when no other options seem to be working. It is up to White America, myself included, to ensure that racial justice becomes a fundamental priority of this nation so that desperate measures never again need resorting to.