That buck doesn't stop here

Actress Lena Dunham says I'm responsible for the police shooting of a black-skinned man because I'm white. First, I don't care about the rantings of an actress. Just because you are good at pretending, does not make you an expert; her opinion is just that, opinion. I have one too and it is just as valid. I once starred in a high school play. So there.

At the risk of violating Godwin's Law right at the outset, doesn't blaming one race for all of society's ills sound a lot like blaming the Jews for Germany's economic woes after WWI? My skin pigment is no more than genetics and biology. I can no more change my skin than I can my eyes. The very people who assure us a gay person is just "born that way" insists I need to change because of the color of my skin. Sorry, I refuse to don the mantle of white guilt.

I worked hard, got an education, stayed away from drugs. No one gave me preferences based on my skin color, in fact, I was precluded from scholarships and aid precisely because I was not black. I think any mind is a terrible thing to waste. Assigning me culpability for society's ills based on my ancestor's European roots ignores the basic tenet of individual responsibility. I am no more responsible for the police shooting of an African-American than I am of the robbing of the local bank branch by a white guy. I am not my brother's keeper.

If a black guy shoots a white cop in Texas is the African-American lady who lives next door to me morally culpable?

I grew up in a small town. I can tell you some of the biggest jerks I knew went on to be cops. They like the power and authority. Anecdote is not data, and I also know some wonderful police officers. It is also true that when you wrestle with pigs you get muddy. It is no wonder so many in law enforcement have bad attitudes when the only people they interact with are the liars and criminals of society.  I imagine you would tend to adopt a jaundiced view of the citizenry at large. I have seen a cop lie right in court while under oath. A cop also drove my son to a gas station and provided a gas can when he was stranded on a remote stretch of highway out of fuel. Are there racist cops? Absolutely. Are there skin color-blind police officers? Absolutely.

Is there a stealth movement to gun down minorities? Statistics do not bear that theory.

I do know that reactions and comments by the Governor of Minnesota or the President before the facts are in only exacerbates the situation. Events in Ferguson are a prime example. Knee-jerk justice is just another name for a lynch mob.

I didn't wrestle with the cops in Baton Rouge. I didn't pull the trigger in Minnesota. We are all responsible for our own actions. Blaming the conduct of a few on the many is inherently evil. That is not to say we don't need a dialogue. We have have a violence problem in this country. We have a race problem in this country. We have economic problems. But I assure you, the color of my skin had nothing to do with the 66 people who were shot in Chicago last weekend, nor one shooting in Louisiana. That, is a starting point I reject wholeheartedly.