If I lived in Ferguson, Mo…..was any age, including over 18 and lived at home or close by, there would have not been a chance in hell I would have been allowed to participate in that brawl. I don’t care if they were 100% right, I would have been at home! My parents would have announced to anyone under their roof that they were to stay at home, stay out of the mess, ‘downtown’ and if they didn’t,mmmmm…mm…mmmmm, if ya know what I mean. Let it be known that my parents never beat me….and were never abusive. However, there were times when the fly swatter was not used for flies.

I was taught that being in a mob….defacing anything, (and that included soaping windows at Halloween), yelling at people, using bad words, and in general, embarrassing the family, was totally out of the question.

I was never told, but ‘asked’ when I would be home when I went out….I said a certain time and I was home by then. If something occurred (legally), I called….they respected me and I them. Didn’t have to, but I did.

Don’t tell me my parents didn’t have control….regardless of my age. At first it was the law, then control, and then it became respect. Respect for my family, my neighborhood, and my town. My friends and I say, of course there was a certain amount of fear….there has to be. Fear came in to play when I was little and continued til it became respect and the ‘right thing to do’. That doesn’t mean fear of pain…it means fear of being a fool, and making your family look foolish.

If I would have done the least of what those kids did….I would have been down there first apologizing, then with my broom picking up the mess, then with my money replacing all that was damaged, then with my body working there to pay anything else off, and then, under my mother’s guidance, putting an article in the paper saying how sorry I was to have hurt the people and businesses in the town I lived in.

Parents of those in Ferguson, Oakland, or anywhere else destroying becomes the way to ‘fix’ unrest….get out the broom. If you don’t want a 100% white police force, work in your city to get a majority black police force. If you think there is no work…finish school and be marketable. Showing yourself like last night will certainly not get you hired where a good reputation counts. Wear clothes that make you ‘classy’ instead of ‘assy’. No one should be without wonderful clothes….there are racks full in great thrift shops. Oh yes we do….buy stuff there for us and our kids.

Work in your church….for nothing….get out the broom again, keep the grass mowed, help those who have less, have more.

Notice I haven’t said anything about staying out…drink’in, drugs, etc. Give me a break, if you are doing what you should be, you won’t have time.

My mother-in-law said ‘Nothing good ever happens after the sun goes down’……amen