In channel flipping through am news today, two black women caught my attention:

The mayor of Baltimore spoke in a terse, firm, reasonable voice of how wrong it is for the rioters to destroy the property and businesses "that we have worked so hard to build up" (hope I got the words right). Her insistence that the rioting was not in any way a protest, but mere thuggery was a brave stance to take. I get the feeling that she is one of many who are frustrated at how the necessary and peaceful protests are being marginalized or negated by violence.

The second was a news clip that had folks cheering, jeering and laughing at work: a mother smacking her adolescent son, chasing him home out of the riot - behaving as a really ticked off parent at a kid doing something stupid and nasty. Kid isn't going to live that down fast - hard to be hip to thug life when yer mamma beats year head home.

This attitude of Freddie Gray's death being a horrible action, but violence (and particularly violence within the black community and against people on their side) is not a reasonable reaction or way to make necessary change - this is what I'm hearing from my black friends. I admit my black friends tend to be educated, church-going, law abiding middle class folks - but they're very aware they're not immune from race profiling, with the possible dangers.

Righteous anger, in a calm voice, really needs to be the sound of the times.

Joanne in Cleveland (where the police officer's trial on over-kill of an unarmed black couple continues today)