Regarding Minneapolis

While I think perhaps the shouting and chanting may have been avoided, please note that nobody hauled off and punched anybody else in the (apparently) disparate crowd that gathered when their mayor announced the naming of a new police chief. I say 'apparently' because to look at them, about the only thing they have in common is their area of residence - their outrage at conditions in said area - and their determination to make their voices heard.

I do not know whether they requested an opportunity to speak prior to the press conference or not. If they did, it seems they must have been denied. If they did not, they perhaps ought to have. Either way, they certainly put their voices to use for the purpose they intended to use them.

The day following doesn't seem to have produced any looting or rioting or fighting in the streets  or it would have been splashed all over the place. I've seen reports of marches in Australia but have heard of no violence having occurred there, either.

One hopes it will remain so.

It seems a different sort of population has begun to come to the fore. They don't seem intent on violence, but rather the reverse, and also don't seem to be all that intimidated. I've already heard criticism from some about the folks who stood up to their mayor and called for her to step down. I've also not heard about any violence being involved, either at the press conference they usurped or since.

So the question is open: What next?

Will the city of Minneapolis give its citizens a forum from which to speak? Again, one would hope so.

Will the natives of Minneapolis be able to achieve their stated goal/s without doing harm to their own city as they try to heal it? Well, so far so good on that front from what I gather, so once more one the word that comes to mind is 'hope'.

One commentator, I don't remember which, insinuated that these are folks who rarely vote. If so, still again the word 'hope' comes into play. Maybe now they will. Not that I for one minute believe that everyone would agree with me about that possibility becoming reality being a good thing. Me, I think it would be a very good thing.

Whether they can come up with a representative candidate; whether they can present a cohesive plan of political action; whether they can demand and get a recall election and succeed in obtaining the necessary votes to oust their mayor I have no idea.

But they've made two things perfectly clear: One is that they aren't going to just sit down and shut up. The other is that they don't want violence.

The question will remain open until the natives of Minneapolis, and its current administration, answer it.

And the world will be watching to see what that answer is going to be.