It all depends...

A favorite saying of my dear mama's was, "It all depends on whose ox is being gored."   It all depends on if something you hold dear is under attack or not.

Some Americans support the people in Ferguson, MO who protest the circumstances around Michael Brown's death.  Some think police deserve to expect that the public they are sworn to protect & serve will accept their actions without question.  Where you fall - in either camp or somewhere in between - depends on your ox, on which issues speak to your heart.

It feels like many of my "traditional American" friends, acquaintances & utter strangers are experiencing Michael Brown's death as a stand-alone tragedy.  The same as they experienced Trayvon Martin's death, the same as they recently experienced Eric Garner's death, or Henry Davis' arrest.  Separate, unrelated situations.

It feels like many people of color - whatever their race - experience it differently.  To many of them, Michael connects to Mr. Garner to Trayvon to Henry Davis to a long list of young black men who died at the hands of "traditional Americans," young men like James Chaney & Emmett Till.  They have seen stalkers like George Zimmerman, who disregarded police instructions to abandon his pursuit, go free, while an innocent Henry Davis had his case for denial of civil rights thrown out by a federal judge who ruled his injuries, including concussion, failed to meet standards for excessive police force. It connects to six years of having an African-American president reviled by millions of people who seem more offended by his race than by his actual politics.  It connects to the successful efforts of Republican state houses across the country that pass laws to protect against virtually non-existent voter fraud, laws that incidentally make it tougher for blacks to vote.  They see the big picture.  And it ain't pretty.   

My experience of American law enforcement & courts is light years from that of my African-American friends.  They tell of college professor fathers & white collar dads having "the talk" with their brothers - impossible to imagine Dad having to coach Peter & Michael, let alone young Ian, on how to act with the law.  But to my friends' families, it's standard practice. 

Will the effect of Michael Brown's death on the national consciousness be similar to Trayvon Martin's, where it is soon forgotten, or will it be like Emmett Till's, rousing our country out of a slumber to see - again, still - that the quality of American life is too often determined by the shade of your skin?

How far are we from 1949's debut of Rogers & Hammerstein's still-too-apt You've Got to Be Carefully Taught?  When people go to this year's movie version of Into the Woods, what will they read into the haunting Children Will Listen?  Guess it will all depend on whose ox is being gored.