Look inward, angel

Has anyone else picked up on these two headlines recently?

Egypt calls for restraint in Ferguson

Palestinians tweet tear gas advice to Ferguson protesters

Unfortunately they aren't from the Onion or any of the other political satire sites. It's time to wake up and realize this stuff is real. People in countries where we have interfered are now advising Americans on how to carry on. Remember Arab Spring? Think Ferguson Fall.

Soccer fans in Turkey – support for Ferguson

Wherever did they get the idea they could do that. Man, the audacity. Next thing you know Turkey, Lebanon and Sudan will be sending advice on how to manage an influx of refugees. The U.S. would be screaming bloody murder if some out of control citizens started guarding the border out of Syria trying to turn back the flood of refugees from that war.

Not too long ago a bunch of Americans had a standoff with the government in Nevada, but none of them were shot at despite them leveling their weapons toward American  officials. And,  none of those patriots who railed against an overstepping  government has stepped in to advise the citizens of Ferguson on how to handle a government standoff.  Of course all of those patriots were white, except for one. Those guys even used a tactic straight out of the Middle  Eastern playbook, putting the women and children on the front line while the heroes with guns stood behind them. Those folks have been noticeably quiet about sending advice to the demonstrators in Ferguson, but of course most of the people demonstrating in Ferguson are black. Funny too, you don't see any of those Ferguson demonstrators open carrying firearms either. If the police shoot a kid for jaywalking what happens to the guy who walks down the street with an AR-15 slung over his shoulder?

Meanwhile we wake up every morning to news video that at first looks like it could just as well be Syria, or Iraq or Nigeria or leftover footage from Vietnam with battle-ready troops riding in heavily armored military vehicles pointing their guns at unruly crowds of citizens, the scenes illuminated in eerie diffused light passing through clouds of gas thrown at the demonstrators. It always takes a moment to realize those scenes are taking place in the heart of America. That's right, American citizens, assembling and expressing their displeasure with a government force that first gunned down an unarmed man, and then sent an Army to stop them, in the process threatening and arresting members of the press along with their own citizens.

But the military isn't the only weapon in use. Somewhere Travon Martin is shaking his head and wondering if we will ever learn as the government there in Ferguson with the compllicity of the press tries to assassinate the character of the victim. He could have been on marijuana, he stole from a store, he was belligerent, all capital offenses according to the police. And the acquiescent press lets them do it. Meanwhile they hold onto the victim's body for yet a third autopsy looking for anything they can use to blame him for his own death.

Then too they are employing a term oh so familiar to those of us who demonstrated for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s – those ubiquitous villains, the outside agitators. Any demonstration I was in I usually at least recognized most of the people with me and never did I see an outsider who was trying to get us to do anything we didn't want to do. The only strangers we ever encountered were the ones we easily picked out as FBI agents gathering information on us. It has always bothered me that I never made Richard Nixon's enemies list. But now there are outside agitators riling up the citizens of Ferguson, or so we are led to believe.

Frankly it is all repetitive bulldust and reminiscent of the police riot during the 1968 Democrat Convention in Chicago, or going farther back to the civil rights demonstrations earlier in the 60s. Remember "Beat the Press" and "Mace the Nation?"  Same language, same heroes and villains, same, in this case, racism that some of us thought had been resolved long ago until we elected a non-white president and the hatred boiled to the surface, hatred fueled by one element unavailable in those days, the Internet.

It's tougher now to shroud atrocities in darkness when everyone is carrying a camera with the ability to broadcast images worldwide in an instant. And, it is easier to spread innuendo and lies and character assassinations as well and spread that hatred to all who will read.

And after all the meddling Americans have done in the affairs of other nations, it allows people in far-flung countries who have experienced government oppression to advise Americans on how to deal with the same kind of oppression in our own country. How does that sit with the arrogant American psyche?

Meanwhile the real victim of this episode, Michael Brown, who had just graduated high school and was on his way to college lies on a cold stone almost forgotten in a dingy morgue somewhere.