Reflections over the Atlantic

London was a delight but while we were there, horrific events were taking place back home in the USA. First, and right in Baton Rouge, a black man named Alton Stirling was held down by two white policeman and shot to death by one of them outside a convenience store where Stirling was selling bootleg CDs. The next day, Philando Castille, another black man, was shot to death in his car by a white policeman who stopped him for a traffic violation in Minnesota. The aftermath was live streamed by his girlfriend who was in the car when it happened. Then, a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas was turned into a deadly ambush of police officers by a third black man, Micah Johnson, a young Army vet of the Afghanistan war who subscribed to black separatist ideology. Five policeman died before the police blew Johnson up with a robot delivered bomb. Sickened and appalled by the unending gun violence in the USA, I chose not to read the details in the news media until several days later.

I'm a white guy who loves to listen to and play the blues. Obviously, I've never been black but I understand the blues I dig emerged from the experience of hardship and oppression of African-Americans. I owe a debt of gratitude to all the blues musicians who took their struggles and transformed them into a thing of beauty. Ironically, there's a really fine white, male blues player going by the stage name of Elvin Killerbe who had the chutzpah to make a very rude, cynical and cocky comment on my Facebook page when my post decried the hate-based firearm violence plaguing the USA and most of all black people. Go figure. I wrote a sarcastic reply, then deleted his comment and my reply, then decided to just unfriend and be done with him.

My roots are in Alabama. My Scott ancestors were among the first white people to settle in Alabama. My Mom's people also came to Alabama in the 19th Century and many are still there. Although my ancestors were part of the plantation and slave culture of the south, I'm proud to say both my parents taught me to be free of prejudice and to support human rights for all people. I'm outraged by the unbridled gun violence in the USA and am working on ways I can take action contributing to disarmament and peace.