Black Lives Matter (does this white guy understand?) [View all]

[louis c]

I've been giving some thought about the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

I was involved as a young man in the civil rights movement and my late Father was a very close friend and political ally of Senator Ed Brooke of Mass. (1966-1978).

I like to pride myself in being an aging liberal (63 yrs. old).

I understand that blacks are being oppressed and treated unfairly by everyone in authority, especially black men.

But when others say that all lives matter, why do the demonstrators get so upset with folks who seem to be allies?

Like I said, I gave it some thought.

Then, it dawned on me. The attention should be going to the ones who need it. And the ones who need it are offended that we (whites) don't get it, because it's so obvious.

So, I came up with this analogy that seems to explain it in clearly simple terms.

Let's say there are 8 houses on a street and one is engulfed in flames. At that moment in time, that's the house that matters. The rest are safe. The neighbors need to come to the aid of the burning house. Sure, all the houses matter, but you are insulting the owner of the burning house if you even mention that. It's his (or her) house that is in urgent need, and only an idiot wouldn't be able to see that in real time.