I was going to write something “deep & insightful” today about the Baltimore riots – something about how the focus should be less on the vandalism perpetrated by the protestors and more about the many years of political violence that ultimately inspired the same; something about how the response to such repugnant elitism should not be further acts of violent destruction, but rather forceful acts of radically disobedient Peace — and yet for now I think I’ll allow the following short & poignant paragraphs suffice. They are, after all, as good a place to start as any …

“Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela, and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.

That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts [of violence], but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state …

We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing their economic, civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ball game irrelevant in light of the needless suffering our government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.”

~ John P. Angelos (the Executive Vice President of the Baltimore Orioles and son of majority team owner Peter Angelos, giving an eye-opening statement in response to Orioles sportscaster Brett Hollander’s critique of the Freddie Gray demonstrations)

Filed under: Outing the Oligarchy by Scaughdt