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WINTER HAVEN… If there is one symbol to emerge from the abyss of Ferguson that has remained in the public consciousness, it has to be that of the Ferguson protesters and the “Hands up—don’t shoot” gesture. It was seen countless times on TV screens around the world as the angst unfolded in the Ferguson streets over the shooting of Michael Brown. While the grand jury took its time (deliberately or not?) deciding whether to indict the officer involved (Darren Wilson) in the fatal shooting of Brown, the voracity of the street protests there had subsided to an extent. Much anger, though, was still bubbling beneath the surface, awaiting the jury’s expected verdict.

It is an absolute rarity in the United States that a police officer gets indicted for murder or similar charges in a case of this nature, where there was some sort of struggle between an officer and a suspect, and you can probably quadruple that when it is a white officer and black suspect involved. The decision to not indict Wilson was eventually delivered, and the streets of Ferguson once again became a battleground between law enforcement and local residents. It was every bit as ugly as round one.

I can’t begin to address from any viewpoint possible the centuries-long struggle of black Americans here. Having had several black friends over the years whom I truly cared about and enjoyed being around, I try to have understanding and empathy. But having a few black friends hardly qualifies me as an expert on the subject of inequality and racial struggle. So I look on at the situation in Ferguson with a lot of uneasiness and a heavy heart. My lifelong wishes for tolerance and understanding in our society seem to be further from happening than before 1965, when I was a wide-eyed kid watching the civil rights movement unfold.

In my life experience, I have found that a fair majority of whites who profess to dislike American blacks have never known or even met any of them. This is a profound thing to me and has to prove that hate is a learned and taught behavior. Our minds and souls are blank canvases when we enter this world, aren’t they?

Enter the St. Louis Rams. In their first game after the grand jury decided not to indict Wilson on any charges, several black players from the club emerged from the tunnel to come out for the game using the “Hands up—don’t shoot” symbol. I am obligated to state that I did not see the game and have not looked up any video clips of the event. I have seen still photos of the players making their gesture. I get it. I understand when athletes use their sporting platform to bring light to their cause. I saw Mexico City 1968 on live television. I saw terrorism used to make a political statement at Munich in 1972.

But then, to be bluntly honest about it, I thought, isn’t this misguided angst? Isn’t this a situation of people with a real cause choosing the wrong event at which to address their grievances? Additionally, hasn’t the major media of this country failed miserably in their coverage of this event, of the way it really happened and in bringing some clarity to it to make it more understandable to the average person who may have some interest? In the absence of truthful, forthright reporting, they were left to engage in character assassination against Brown. The mainstream media profiled him.

First off, it is highly regrettable that the young Brown lost his life in such a needless fashion. Please underscore that. Second, there is truth that Brown himself bears some of the responsibility for his eventual fate. Some folks might not want to hear that, but it is real. In their first encounter, when the officer asked Brown and his friend to get up on the sidewalk, why didn’t he just do that? We wouldn’t be talking about him today had he followed the seemingly simple request.

Next, if you reach into a squad car with an on-duty officer inside of it and make an attempt at his weapon, usually there will be a not-so-good outcome. What was Brown thinking? Why didn’t the officer use non-lethal police tactics to get control of the situation? He claimed in an exclusive ABC interview that he couldn’t access those tools due to the position he was in during the struggle with Brown. In the end, the media really didn’t tell us who Michael Brown was. Did he meet his Waterloo over angst with white authority?  

I am guessing that neither the Rams organization nor the NFL knew ahead of time what the players were going to do. Perhaps it was totally spontaneous. Personally, I would have preferred that they used their platform in a different way to get a message out about their solidarity with the community and with Brown’s family. What would that message be? I honestly don’t have an answer for you. I have never been an advocate of total surrender to power, nor could I embrace anarchy. And in today’s world of invasive tactics by our own government in the name of “national security” against who knows what, haven’t we all been subjected to some type of knuckling under against our will? I can hardly compare that to the black struggle here, though.

I saw the racism of the late fifties and early sixties in my birth city. I recall it today as if it just occurred. It brings sadness and anger to me that a human being would be treated differently because of skin color, religion, ethnicity, gender, orientation, or a similar factor. Then we witnessed the acceptance of the Civil Rights Bill. We appeared to be making some progress, and we were. Then we elected a black president, and once again the haters and uninformed idiots of our society suddenly got a bigger microphone than they deserve.

Well, I may not have a lot of answers for the Brown event or for Ferguson. But I have a message for haters: grow up or go away. You are pathetic juveniles. For the rest of us, white or black: maybe we can use this event to look in the mirror and rethink all of our behavior and vow to change and get better…. PEACE

Marc Elliott is a sports opinion writer who splits his time between Minnesota and his hometown in Illinois…