Joe Diaz: Does BLM make heroes and martyrs out of career criminals?

Abraham Lincoln said, “If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." He said that in 1838 warning that mobs or people who disrespected U.S. laws and courts could destroy the United States.

So here we are in 2020 with enough problems. With the pandemic killing us and changing a way of life. With fires destroying the west and major crop damages in the Midwest.

With two old, rich, white men both claiming they are our champions. They are for the Black people, veterans and whatever else. But the truth is neither really gives a damn about us. And that’s a fact. Their VP candidates are most caring than the interchangeable Trump/Biden.

So why with of all this do we, the millions in the middle, allow the white supremacists and the BLM movement to pull us into their cesspools? If the forces of evil couldn’t do it 19 years ago, why with instant communications are we allowing this?

The internet is full of daily comments and attacks on both sides. As I said in an earlier column, all true Americans know Black lives matter. But if you don’t say it correctly then you are branded a racist.

The BLM movement is as bad as the white supremacists. They claim they care but only if they can make it white on Black. Or better yet, painting all police as racists. But do they care or say anything about the daily Black on Black crimes and killings? Oh heck, no.

I’m part of that middle group. The ethic groups that came to the U.S. either escaping terrible events in our ancestral countries or starvation. When either we or our forefathers arrived here, we were met with discrimination, slurs and lack of opportunities by the supremacists of the time.

Both the white and Black supremacists want us to fight and hate among ourselves and tear this country apart.

One columnist called me a racist because I said “I have many Black friends.” I’m not sorry I said that because not all Black people are my friends. I have many gay, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Italian, Polish, Hispanic, white, Black and hopefully even one Lithuanian friend. If anyone says all people are their friends, they are either a fool, a liar or running for president.

I know there are some bad cops. Just like there are bad in every group. But I would like to know in a city like Minneapolis with a Black chief of police, if the criminal was white and the size of Floyd disobeyed and resisted arrest five times like he did, would the police do the exact same thing? The same in Ferguson, Kenosha and other places. If that is the case, then why does BLM make heroes and martyrs out of career criminals?

And it is hard to plead discrimination when we had a Black president, Black female VP candidate, Black Lt. governor, and hopefully Michigan’s first Black senator? Both sides please quit peeing on us and say it is raining truth.

Some people say I live in a vacuum and don’t know what I’m talking about. I can only say this: When I was in leadership positions in the Navy I never sent a Black sailor to the brig. I had more problems with “intitled” white sailors.

In the trucking business we have drivers of all ethic groups delivering to a central point. The only difference among us is the size and colors of our trucks. At my American Legion post in Detroit the only difference among us is the size of our caps.

My great-granddaughter Isabella is one-fourth African-American and 50 other ethic groups. She is the true face of the 1908 phase of the “Great Melting Pot” of our country. Hopefully her generation will be above this nonsense.

Because right now Osama bin Laden, Hitler, Mao, Stalin and even the devil are laughing at us and looking forward to the end of the United States of America.

Carleton resident Joe Diaz, 70, retired as a command master chief in 2007 after 40 years with the U.S. Navy. He served in six wars and conflicts. He can be reached atjoediaz00@hotmail.com.