News: Outspoken Editor Slain in California (Oakland, Stanford: crime, neighborhoods, university)

[cottonwood2420]

ksl.com - Outspoken Editor Slain in California

[redwoodlvr]

It just seems like the same insanity continues to perpetuate itself. Different year, same story of corruption, greed, crime, horror and discovery. It's a sad state of affairs. Is this all we're about? According to modern media it is.

[landrover06]

When Muhammad Ali was in exile after he was stripped of his heavyweight title because he refused to fight in Vietnam, he toured the country and gave speeches about among other things, the problem of race in America.

At one college speech, one of the most profound ideas that he stated said that you (paraphrasing) "could take people out of the nice neighborhoods and put them in the ghetto, and in a short time, they'll turn the ghetto into a nice neighborhood. You take the people from the ghetto and put them in nice neighborhoods and in a short time, they'll turn the nice neighborhood into a ghetto. The problem is not the place, IT'S THE PEOPLE."

This is what I believe the problem is in black communities across the nation. Where in the hell is the sense of honor, sense of integrity, sense of self-worth, sense of respect for one's race, respect for one another? Why not the overwhelming emphasis on academic achievement by everyone in the race? Why isn't academic achievement understood within the race to be a goal that is of the utmost of importance, far more important than hip-hop, gang-banging, thug life, or academic stupidity? Why so violent? What does violence achieve? Isn't there a sense of obligation to do all that is high and noble given that men died so blacks could be free, that ancestors died trying to maintain a sense of integrity and self-worth even in the face of severe subjugation? Why choose Biggie over Beethoven? Why choose the streets and thug life over Harvard, Yale, and Stanford and enlightenment? The problem is in the people. It is the people who have enormous talent, but put their tail between their legs and can't compete with asians in academic settings. It is the people who would rather strike out in a self-hatred based rampage because of self-identified inadequacies like failure to read, failure to write, failure to achieve, failure to want to achieve. Lack of respect for self, wife, husband, mother, father, ancestors, neighbors, and so forth reflects a problem with the people. The admission departments of every university should be flooded with candidates who worked hard and are well-qualified. The problem is in the people. The idiots who did this senseless killing should be harshly dealt with, and never should've been allowed to exist if it had been known for quite some time that this place engaged in illegal activities. Problem in the people. The people are the problem.

So everyone runs from these people (good and bad alike). Police departments struggle to expand and deal with the ignorance. Neighbors try to position themselves to realize a peaceful existence because after all, who wants to die a senseless death, by trigger-happy morons who hate themselves? Who the hell wants to be around losers who would rather commit a crime than challenge themselves privately to be better in all areas that matter to this society? The problem is in the people, folks! Ignorance prevails far too often and parts of Oakland are pathetic in this regard.

Until the people can find a way to transcend themselves, I'm afraid that there is no external resolution to this massive problem. Interesting to note that neither Democrats nor the Republicans have any ideas on how to solve this problem.

May this very talented man Chauncey Bailey rest in peace. He was truly an example of one who had transcended the inadequacies of the people.