Banana-Eating Jungle Monkeys 2

First, a note of clarification for Bigmark... Justin Barrett, the officer who referred to professor Gates as a “Banana-Eating jungle monkey” wasn't the arresting officer. He was another officer on the Boston police force who referred to Professor Gates that way in a mass e-mail to other officers and to the Boston Globe. An article about his suspension can be found here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/07/30/2009-07-30_boston_cop_jason_barrett_suspended_for_calling_henry_louis_gates_a_jungle_monkey.html

He was apparently not only suspended (with pay, I stress again, kind of like a vacation) from his job as a police officer, but relieved of military duties by his National Guard unit.

Two more points that i'd like to add here that I realize that I forgot last night.

The first is an open note to all police officers that I may encounter. If you ever arrest me... IN MY HOME... after I have proven that it's MY HOME... the behavior of a banana-eating jungle monkey is just about the BEST behavior that you'll be able to expect from me. I think that we give police officers WAY too much power and leeway to use it in our culture. It's almost like cop worship. Of course, since I am largely white, I think that no matter how unruly I got, I would just get an apology from the officer for the misunderstanding. It sucks, but that's the way that it is. I think that if professor Gates had been white, he probably would have gotten an apology instead of cuffed and fingerprinted.

I also want to say that I think that President Obama behaved stupidly... er... I mean... I think that he could have handled that situation differently.

First off, Mr. Obama, I can't speak for the arresting officer, but in my lexicon of “bad” words, “stupid” is about the worst of them. You call me stupid and you're just asking for a fight. You want to say that I acted inappropriately, okay. It's been known to happen. You want to say that I behaved without thinking, okay. That, too. But “stupidly”? Come on, now.

Also, I am more than a little frustrated that he allowed himself to be sidelined by this incident and question when he SHOULD have been concentrating on pushing health care through. The republicans, on behalf of their rich friends in the Insurance business, managed to sideline the Clintons in the nineties, health care never got done, and look how much worse the situation is now than it was then. Mr. Obama, you CANNOT allow yourself to be distracted here. FOCUS. You are working out to be much more moderate than I thought that you were going to be when I voted for you, but this could be your LEGACY. No more beer for you until you finish your homework!

And, on a quick side-note, let me just explain to anyone out there who's been watching F-word news... Obama's health care plan does NOT mean that he's going to let your granny die. Rationing of health care does NOT mean that people will be told that they are too ill to care for. As a matter of fact, that's what your buddies in the insurance business are doing NOW. What it DOES mean that, if you're on the public plan, and you go running into the ER with a hangnail screaming “EMERGENCY!” that you've gotta WAIT. Okay? Just to clarify.

Peace.

Rev. Randal