Mattias,
I never post on these threads because I like most of you too much to get into arguments, this is not the place where I effect social change.
In this case I make an exception because I specifically value your contributions, but you are off base here.
Why ask the questions you are asking if there is only one right answer? If you "know" the answers then state your opinion, which I'll likely agree with knowing your politics.
Bluebird is addressing something fundamental in the American experience, the relentless and inevitable binary division of people into good and bad. I am a good man but I have done bad things. I am a bad man who has done good things.
I almost started a thread today about the seeming loops we are in in the political conversations here. I would like posters to start sharing their experiences, not trying to change other people minds (it never works).
You have experiences in your life as brown man that I do not have. I have experiences as the parent of two adopted children that are somewhat atypical, John Roberts has experiences that have shaped his opinions that I can learn from.
I remember being stopped on the street as a young adult in London once by police, a basic stop and frisk. Their reason, we looked a little rough. The fact that we were Irish added a little extra spice. They turned out our pockets and treated us as criminals, separating us and checking our stories. My friend has a broken watch in his pocket, a leaving gift from work colleagues in a bar he had worked at since he was 14. Having no strap the cops naturally assumed it had been freshly ripped from someone's wrist.
This experience I imagine is a tiny tiny taste of what it feels like to be black, brown, Muslim etc in this country. Some of the things happening in this country enrage me, just like many things did in my home country of Ireland (talking to you catholic church).
Let's share what we've been through, if we can do that I might even join in from time to time.
