Today 1 in 3 adult black males in the United States of America are convicted felons. For some this gap (33% of adult black males vs. 13% of all adult males) just goes to show, all blacks are criminals. For others this shocking statistic illustrates the injustice running rampant through our system. I am aligned with the rampant injustice (fact-based) believers. From the research and statistics, I also believe that AT LEAST 1 in 3 of all adult males could be convicted felons, which, (if I follow the reasoning of the unthinking majority), I guess just goes to show that all adult males are criminals. But, (hanging with the fact-based minority), I believe this shows that the laws we choose to emphasize and enforce, (many times at the street level), are not based on sound principles of farsighted consensus justice, but instead are structured and manipulated to maintain an old guard status quo.

I believe this entrenched injustice applies to far more than blacks caught up in the criminal justice system. It also applies to single Moms, and the disabled, and the skeptics, and the homeless, and the immigrants, and the bona-fide credentialed experts, and the poverty-stricken, and the serious thinkers, and the mentally ill, and the growing majority ranks of paycheck-to-paycheck working poor, and anyone else who doesn’t fit neatly into the system’s expectation of subservient acquiescence.

Everyone in their place.

We preach hope. We practice suppression.

It is like telling a dog who is beaten daily by his master that he has a choice. It is like telling a squirrel to wait for traffic. It is like telling a man in the throes of a massive heart attack, not to die. It is like telling a pinball caught rapid-fire between two bumpers to begin planning its next move. Circumstance begets circumstance begets circumstance-begets-circumstance-begets-circumstance-begets-circumstance-begets-How-the-hell-did-I-get-here? Roadkill.

We play at anecdotal sympathy and we amuse ourselves with selective, superficial empathy. We flirt with serious consideration and we trifle with the future. We pretend to know Beauty, Truth and Wisdom and we dabble in Faith. We tinker with Life.

It is easy to ignore a preponderance of evidence when the bar is set at beyond a reasonable doubt; even easier when we use the old guard definition of reasonable.

To divide and to separate and to categorize is no longer reasonable. To create circumstance that seduces and deceives and entangles, and then to blame those caught in the trap, is no longer reasonable. To play and to amuse ourselves and to flirt and to trifle and to pretend and to dabble and to tinker is no longer reasonable. To continue to ignore the preponderance of evidence is no longer reasonable.

Yes, it is extremely disheartening to see the massive writhing contortion of reality beneath the veil. Perhaps it would be less monstrous if we could all see it; if we could all share it. But it appears that we prefer to believe everything will be okay. True to our animal nature, we prefer to live in the moment for the moment. And on this trajectory, sooner than later, that moment will be gone.

Problem solved.