Not a Great Night for the Human Race

I was glued to the tv yesterday afternoon and evening waiting for the Grand Jury decision on the Michael Brown case.  Since we lived in Ferguson for 9 years and lived two blocks away from the police station I was very familiar with the scene.  When we moved away the area was clearly going down hill.  Miraculously over the last several years the community experienced a revival with new restaurants and shops in the downtown area which was pretty much shuttered and in decay when we left in 1987.  We are pretty loyal to local businesses that give us good service so even though we no longer lived there we still buy our tires at Andy Wurm, a family owned tire business located directly across from the police station.  They appear to have survived business intact, but that was not the case with many businesses both in the downtown Ferguson area and on the east side of town.  Many local businesses were torched including minority owned businesses and family businesses that had been serving the minority community for years.

Ferguson has been portrayed as a rascist city ruled by white folks using police to terrorize the black community.  Not true.  If you did not want to live in a mixed community you voted with your feet a long time ago.  The white folks who live there are mostly long time residents who want to be there.  The middle class black folks who live there have moved out from the city looking for less crime, better schools and good housing.  In Ferguson they found all three; however, the events of the last three months is changing all of that.  Middle class folks, white and black, like lots of folks before them, my family included, will continue their quest for less crime, better schools and good housing.  The folks who are left will have a meager tax base, declining services and higher crime.  We have done this dance before.....in Riverview, in Normandy, in Jennings and in North City.

As a final note Jay Nixon is an ass.  He is the worst excuse for a governor I have ever seen.  To let the city of Ferguson burn was inexcusable.  He has no political future.