And then make me a sammich

*Sigh*

St. Louis. Baltimore. Los Angeles. This is what happens when you pay the barbarians to leave you alone. They keep coming back for more. Individual lives matter. Yours, mine, black or white, gay or straight, Christian, Atheist, Catholic or Protestant. Muslim or Jew. Violence begets violence. So understand rioters, that you are NOT immune from this. You are NOT protected. Sooner or later, all your "pay us or we'll riot" political games WILL backfire, and people just. Won't. Care. Anymore. Sooner or later, the victim stops caring how it'll look to the teacher when he fights back against the bully. And THAT is when society will crumble. Because it WILL be every man for himself, and nobody will WANT to look out for his neighbor anymore. We live in a world where we have to walk a fine line between law and order and individual liberty. It's a tightrope. While balancing a house of cards on your head. And like any tightrope, the slightest misstep will cause the whole thing to fall. Not that the barbarians care. They just want to loot, pillage, rape, and burn. They are parasites, not caring that when the host dies, they die, too. Thing is, unlike most parasites, these CAN choose something different. And unlike Viking times, when the parasite actually lived elsewhere, and could be driven back, these live among us. There is no front line anymore. The societal cancer may have spread too far. I don't know if this can be fixed. At this point, we can only pray.

We all have 2 choices. One is E Pluribus Unum. The many becoming one, MLK's dream of people be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. Trash is trash, doesn't matter what color you are. Quality is quality, doesn't matter what color you are. The other is not what people purport to want, and historically leads to bad ends, but seem to be agitating towards. Separatism. Territories. Reservations. Ghettoes. An area where the Other will not go, where they can be driven back to, and where they can be found, wiped out, and destroyed on the slightest excuse. Just ask the Sioux. Or European Jews. Or Jews and Palestinians in Israel. Or South Africans of any color. I'm sure there are numerous examples.

Can we turn it around? Not with people angling for power and control. Because that's all this is about. Who controls people. Gets them do do what they want. Al Sharpton? Alex Jones? Same animal, different group they are agitating.

And I am sick of feeling agitated. I'm also sick of hiding in my blanket fort. I'm going to Church, to their Cinco De Mayo carnival, and I'm going to watch families have fun, and live vicariously for a few hours. Even if it rips my damn heart out. And I'm going to bare my teeth smile through it all. I choose to rejoice with those who rejoice today.