On Getting Stuck in an Old Script
Some thoughts on race relations have been percolating for some time. Here is the August newsletter article I wrote for Church of the Good Shepherd, UM: In the last week one of those national stories that gets blown out of proportion by the relentless 24-hour news cycle caught my eye. You’ve certainly seen or heard it by now – Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University was briefly arrested and charged at his home after exchanging heated words with an officer in the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department. Professor Gates had just returned from a long trip to China and was exhausted, coming down with a bad cold, and generally grumpy, when he arrived at his home to find that his door was jammed. He and the driver who was helping him with his bags worked to dislodge the door. A concerned citizen noticed the activity and thought there might be a break in occurring. The police responded to investigate. What’s the big deal? Professor Gates is one of the foremost b