After reading the news that some group of Neo Nazis have descended on Sanford, FL in response to racial tensions over the Trayvon Martin fatal shooting my heart sank. “Oh, yeah, that’s just what we need… yet more ignorant hatred.” Then several hours (and some sleep) later I find that some (reported as white) nutjob in N. Tulsa, OK has shot five people, all black, in four different shootings. Three are dead and two are listed as injured (CNN early report).
I have no idea whether the Tulsa shootings are in any way connected to the Trayvon Martin shooting hype. Yes, in my private thoughts I entertain the idea that it probably is, but that’s one great big huge assumption on my part – and not one I’m “married to”. It might turn out that this is so completely mundane (in today’s reality) as to be drug related or some personal vendetta wholly unrelated to anything outside of Tulsa. Or, even, just some genuine crazy hater who woke up yesterday and decided his cat just told him to go out and shoot black men.
At this point any theory is just that – a theory. But human beings always do try to make sense of their world. As thinking human beings we need to remember that just because we may believe something that “something” isn’t necessarily true. After all, people once believed the earth was the center of the heavens – and flat. Or, that tossing children down a really deep hole in the ground would bring rain. Or, that owning another human being was somehow OK.
I close this troubling post with a suggesting that everyone who is inclined to believe they know enough to believe a theory is in fact, well, a fact, should read this: Incompetent People Too Ignorant to Know It. And that gentle suggestion goes for the Treyvon Martin shooting as much as it does the Tulsa OK shootings.
