What is wrong with this country?
In Kansas City, Missouri, a teenager went looking for his brothers at night and he made a mistake. He went to Northeast 115th Street, instead of 115th Terrace (a block away), and pushed the bell.
A man answered the door, and shot him in the head. The kid dropped, and the man shot him again, in the arm this time.
The kid is 16 and Black; the shooter is 84 and white.
No, this didn't happen in Walla Walla, but it could have.
What the hell is the matter with us?
Why are we so wound up in our own comfort that we repel everyone else — with gunfire if necessary?
Where did we get the idea that we are so special that we can dismiss, swat away, shoot, kill, anyone not like us?
Do we need a national psychiatrist? Would it help?
We are not gods, not special, just people on this Earth.
This is not the American Dream.
In this country, we are in more trouble than we admit to.
Edward Reading
Walla Walla
