I am taking a page from Jeffrey Scott today.  He writes a blog which serves as his private (Ok, public) rant. I’m always amazed that he can get guest bloggers to vent their wrath, too.

Well, I heard something on NPR today (which will be yesterday when this is posted) that got me annoyed enough to break into the queue.  Normally, this kind of ire is normally elicited from that mendicant network- the one that claims it’s fair and balanced.  (Sure, it is.  As long as truth is not part of the equation.)

What happened?  What was said?

First, a little context.  As you can’t possibly forget, another city erupted into riotous conditions this week.  Was it provoked?  Sure, the Black and the poor have been dismissed by the changes in America for way too long.  And, miscreant cops are rarely if ever punished (thanks to the SCOTUS [Supreme Court of the United States] 1989 decision in Graham v. Connor,  which leaves it to the police when they can use deadly force).  And, those who reside in Baltimore watched parts of their city rebuild and grow, leaving their neighborhoods devastated by poverty, drugs, crime, joblessness, poor education… the list goes on.

But, destroying the shops, looting the businesses that service your needs- that serves absolutely no purpose.   And, that is exactly what a small bunch of folks did. They burned a senior center, the new CVS megastore that provided jobs and lower priced goods to their community, and countless local shops- as well as the vehicles of folks who probably lacked sufficient insurance to get them replaced.

And, the mayor, the one who handled the initial mess about as poorly as a mayor can (check out my blog).  To be honest, the governor- from the opposite party- shouldn’t be awarded any laurels either.  But, they both seem to have found their way to work things through.

As did countless ministers, moms, and citizens.  Who took to the streets the day after the conflagration to help develop the calm; they even went out with brooms to clean up the mess that became of their neighborhoods.  If I were a Baltimore resident, I couldn’t have been prouder that such folks were my fellow citizens.

But, Mayor Rawlings Blake, Governor Hogan, and President Obama (among others) made it clear what they thought of the hooligans who destroyed West Baltimore.  By calling them what they were- thugs.

Now, when I think of thugs, I think of the criminal element.  The Mafia members that tried to shake down my grandfather some 7 or 8 decades ago- demanding protection money.  Unfortunately for them, they picked on the wrong guy.  (To be honest, I am not sure I would have the ….. to take on those folks- but, for better or worse, my grandfather stopped them cold.)

And, then the Mayor was called on the carpet.  For calling the thugs the thugs that they were.  Because the politically correct police said it was a euphemism for Blacks.   Dr. John McWhorter, a professor of English at Columbia, delivered a nearly 7 minute discourse as to how ‘thugs” mean Blacks. (He actually claimed it was a “sly way” of saying the “N” word.

Really?  I admit I wouldn’t have called them thugs- I would have called them terrorists.  Because that is exactly what they wanted to do- to terrorize the citizenry and the shopkeepers.  (The biggest problem is that they may have succeeded- and now those West Baltimore neighborhoods may never get their shops back, and will find staples in short supply- unless they travel even longer distances.)

Dr. McWhorter went on to claim that White People mean something negative when they use the word thug- while Blacks employ it with more affection.  (I’m sure the folks whose neighborhoods in Baltimore were destroyed have undying affection for those thugs responsible.)

And, context and intonation are critical.  Obviously, when the “Village People” employ “young man” in their insane hit YMCA, it means something very different than when a Sheriff in Tennessee is talking to a 30 year old Black man.  (Yes, some of them still do just that.)

I clearly understand the one true fact he stated- that the definition of words is never constant over time.  (The first time I learned that was when I found out cute started out meaning short, fat, and bowlegged.)  But, we don’t get to change the meanings to impugn the integrity of those who used the proper definitions in the first place.

I, for one, find it offensive when anyone uses the “N” word.  The fact that folks like McWhorter might say (as many do) that it’s permissible for Blacks to use the “N” word is beyond my comprehension.  I also find McWhorter’s actions to be thuggish, in and of themselves.

And, it destroys any ability they have to try to make my speech politically correct.  Because it’s time for us to stop this chicanery.  It’s time to deal with the thugs in our midst.  Just like it’s time to stop using our courts and police to keep the poor (of all ethnic and racial origins)  in jail.