I avoid hating.  Hating an individual hurts us both.  Hating ideas, notions and behavior that hurt people seems called for.  I hate the violence in Portland and other America cities today.  Grasping for what propels this violence had me bewildered.

Seeing younger men—always younger men—desecrate and torch public property you and I paid for and will pay to repair, smash the windows and loot private businesses, left me bewildered.  Why? 

As sometimes happens when I stop to think, really to look, the roots of today’s violence were hiding in plain sight.  Black Lives Mattered is their Trojan Horse.  Striking against a System where they feel powerless, a handful of young white men high-jacked seemingly legitimate alarm over white police officers murdering black men and women.

Truman Capote’s  In Cold Blood quotes Perry Smith.  Something like, “I liked Mr. Clutter, right till I cut his throat.  Somebody had to pay.”  Perry’s feelings of impotence power the violence in America today.  Frustrated, citizens act out their rage against Power over which they are powerless.

Tragically, taxpayers, innocent property owners and shopkeepers “pay!”  Fifty-two inch flat screens and cases of Bud are the perks.