DEEP WATERS

This week my mind returned to the issue of race in our country. I've recently written about race as I revisited the  20th Anniversary of the Rodney King riots . (Coincidentally, this same Rodney King was  found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool on June 17. Rest in peace, Mr. King) Our Sons Are Trayvon examined the balance of justice and mercy in the racially-charged  murder trial of George Zimmerman. I've also written about results of the 2010 US Census and what those results predict about the changing face - literally - of our country. And of course I had to write about that book that had us all talking about the history of race in the South, The Help. Recently two occurrences got me thinking about race once again: one being the  election of the first African American president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the second being my husband's participation in a local panel examining and discussing race relations in our community. Let's take a l...

“Can we all get along?” Five words. Spoken by an assaulted man. Repeated countless times since that day twenty years ago. Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the Los Angeles riots incited by citizens furious over the acquittal of four L.A. police officers that had brutally beaten L.A. resident Rodney King . Rodney King happened to be African American. The officers happened to be Caucasian. And while Rodney King was no saint (he was a 25-year-old convicted robber on parole at the time), his speeding violation and intoxication didn’t warrant the inhumane beating he received at the hands of the men commissioned to “protect and serve.” And when those overzealous officers received an acquittal, the city of L.A. turned upside down. The upheaval from those riots led to more than 50 deaths and $1 billion in property damage. After three days of riots, King emerged from seclusion to speak those infamous five words, “People I just want to say, can we a...