A Different Take on Baltimore

An American disaster almost always happens when my wife and I are on our post-tax season vacation. Just to name a few, we have Columbine, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma City. The only good thing that happened while we were out of the country was we were in Capri when Bin Laden was killed. Having what happened in Baltimore unfortunately fits into our travel experience.

When one is out of the country, there is a different view of whatever is going on back in the States. First, this is because you are on foreign soil and you interact with people differently. Second, on vacation you have more time to ponder things when not confronted with life's normal day-to-day challenges. Therefore, one might experience more clarity than at home in America.

My first thought was — Not again. Really? Does someone really think that burning and looting your local neighborhood is going to get you somewhere? It might have had some benefit in the 60's, but don't you think it has become a little passé and counterproductive? As Rodney King said "Can't we all just get along?" To think that because of a potential injustice done to one black man that the vast majority of these rioters even have a clue is clueless unto itself.

At least this time President Obama made some strong comments condemning the actions of these hooligans. But that was counterbalanced by him lurching into ad hominem utterances about how we as a society need to come up with solutions. At least he was vastly superior to the idiot mayor of Baltimore who stated the rioters should be given space to destroy.

Here is a news flash. I cannot do anything about the plight of Black Americans. And I take no responsibility. And neither should most of you reading this column.

That is despite a deep passion for Blacks and the challenges they have faced. And that is despite a significant affection for most Black people I encounter. They are great Americans.

Here is why I can take the stand I do. It is because not only am I white; I am a Republican. I have many close relations with Blacks and may have excellent rapport with them, but leaders of the Black Community don't want to hear my solutions. My solutions are the same ones every other thoughtful Republican has offered for the last 30-50 years. They don't want to listen to us. The only thing I can affect is getting them better schools, but the Black leaders are in bed with the teachers' unions that continue to control school districts that offer them horrible education alternatives — so strike that as something I can change. And throwing more money at the schools will not help. The Baltimore schools already receive near the highest level of funding in the country.

These self-anointed Black leaders just want us to make money, turn it over to the government, and have them turn it over to Black communities to accomplish exactly what they have been accomplishing since MLK died — destruction of the community.

It is not as if the Blacks have not had a chance to change things. The number of Black elected officials and members of the power structure has grown exponentially. There is one uniting thing between them other than being Black. They are liberal Democrats. That is the problem — not that they are Black. Judging by the ludicrous statements that come out of their mouths, they are mostly far to the left. Yet, they keep on getting elected. President Obama has stated that we tried the same strategy for 50 years with Cuba and it has not worked so he suggested we should try something different. Well, doesn't that apply to the Blacks electing these inept liberals to run the cities they live in?

The disconnect of the Left runs so deep yet they cannot see it. After the riots began, the New York Times ran a long editorial detailing the travails of Blacks regarding the job market. The editorial was factual and comprehensive. Except they left out the fact that their open border immigration policy has so hampered the ability of Blacks to obtain low-level jobs from which they can move up the financial ladder in America and build a future for their children that the unemployment rate for Black youth has become perpetually outsized. The Left wants to continue allowing illegals to take job opportunities from Blacks and then plead that it is the humane thing to do. Even the Black Caucus of Congress and President Obama display this huge disconnect. The Left wants it both ways, but they cannot have it.

I find the entire situation demoralizing and disgusting. Most Americans are delighted to help someone who is willing to help themselves but from my vantage point the Black Community appears to have very little interest in helping themselves. They need more people like that woman who slapped her son up alongside the head and told him to get home and stop doing what he was doing. They need to stop blaming other people for their problems and stop accusing the police of always being out to get them. They could collectively use some time reading a few Thomas Sowell books if so many were not functionally illiterate due to union run schools.

Now that the officers have been charged what happens if they are not convicted? Do we have more riots?

Eldridge Cleaver said "You either have to be part of the solution, or you're going to be part of the problem." They will not allow me to be part of the solution, so this is not my problem. My advice to the Black community is get it together -- you are embarrassing our country and doing yourselves a great disservice.

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Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee.