RUTHFULLY YOURS

With all the marching in cities and demonstrating on campus, it might be helpful to look at some actual statistics about Black Lives. According to the Bureau of Justice for the year 2009 (the last for which data is available), 218 Black men died during the course of arrest or while in the custody of the law. This does not distinguish between armed or unarmed men nor does it justify any wrongful death. In the same year, Blacks accounted for 56% of deaths due to HIV/AIDS, the vast majority being young gay black men. In 2012, there were 6,540 Black deaths from HIV/AIDS according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control); although Blacks are only 12% of the population, this represents 50% of the 13,712 people who died of this disease.

While medicines are improving and people are living longer with HIV, there are 45,000 new HIV infections each year and the rate is rising for the most at risk demographic – young gay black men. 72% of Black men with HIV contract it thru sex with other men. High risk, invasive and unprotected sex is common among this group as is non-compliance with taking medication and lack of concern about infecting others.

We are near the end of the seventh year of Barack Obama’s presidency, and by any measure the United States is a fractured nation. Its people are more divided politically than any time in recent memory. Personally, many are anxious, angry or just down.

Whatever Mr. Obama promised in that famous first Inaugural Address, any sense of a nation united and raised up is gone. This isn’t normal second-term blues. It’s a sense of bust.

The formal measure of all this appeared last week with the release of the Pew Research poll, whose headline message is that trust in government is kaput. Forget the old joke about the government coming to “help.” There’s a darker version now: We’re the government, and we’re here to screw you.

In a normal presidential transition year, voters would be excited at the mere prospect of new leadership. Instead, the American people are grasping for straw men.

Fox News reported the name of perhaps the lead suspect, “Syed Farook” that is in play as the lead suspect involved in the massacre at a Holiday party at a San Bernadino, California, Development Disabled facility late Wednesday morning, December 2, 2015. Farook and Tashfeen Malik were in the bullet riddled black SUV killed by Police, they were equipped in black tactical gear, body armor, AK -47 assault weapons with 30 round clips and hand guns. A third possible suspect was seen running away, unclear whether it might a bystander not involved with the attack.

The Los Angeles Times in late breaking news reported:

Syed Farook, an inspector for the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, had traveled to Saudi Arabia, married, had a child, and appeared to be “living the American dream,” co-workers said today. They were stunned after law enforcement sources identified a man named Syed Farook as a suspect in the mass shooting at the department’s holiday party.