Getting On With It....

"I'm voting for Trump. Because he says if you don't work, you don't eat and I believe in that. They give these men food stamps when they're not working or nothing. But when the woman working and taking care of her kids, you cut her food stamps all the way down."
"I feel like this: they should do more of a screening process when they let these foreigners in our country. I'm sorry, that's just how I feel. Because when they get over [here], they're blowing up shit and all kinds of stuff."
"I love Hillary Clinton. But they're not going to let a woman be president. Be realistic. They're not."
Malisha Williams, Ferguson, Missouri

"And I was like, you know what? I could vote for that guy [Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator]. [He's a guy] who started from a place where things weren't always good."
"Because people who've been through any type of hardship, like real hardship? Not only are they a lot more sympathetic or empathetic. But they know how to fix shit. You know what I mean? Like if you grow up and you don't always have the money to get things fixed yourself, you figure out how to solve problems a lot better than someone who can always just pay a repairman."
Remy Jones, Ferguson

"My momma told me when I was a kid not to vote for a Republican. There's no way he's [Trump] winning. He's trying to deport people already. Why you trying to deport people? Talking bad on Mexicans: You cannot talk about a whole race."
"My thing is, presidents always say they're going to do things and they never do it. Obama to me didn't do much ... I mean, look at Flint, Michigan. He's been in office eight years, their water shouldn't be dirty at all."
"She's [Hilary Clinton] got to stop praying. That's not going to change my mind. There's too much of that. It's acting. Just be you. Be yourself. Don't try to come in my comfort zone, my people's comfort zone. It's all an act anyway. I want the real you. It's the president: she's got to be real."
Travon Eddins, 21, Forklift operator, Ferguson

"The standard of living, the standard of life, the standard of everything has just dropped, dropped, dropped. Honestly, I would give him [Obama] a C. I mean, he's always advocated about helping the lower class, helping people find jobs, helping people get health care But he hasn't done anything, really, in my opinion."
"They have all that propaganda that they're trying to make changes and they're trying all of these things to make it right on the quality and the black and white issues. But nothing's changed."
Lisa Burte, teacher, Ferguson

This is the city where on a crossroads, late one summer night an 18-year-old black man was shot to death by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The St.Louis suburb of Ferguson went into immediate protest mode. A young black man, Michael O.D. Brown, out for a night of relaxation with a friend, innocently walking along the street, had his young life taken from him. His parents would never see their son's future unfold before their proud eyes; their hearts were broken.

Police stand watch as demonstrators protest the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday  (Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)

This is a moderately prosperous U.S. city, with middle-class homes, middle-class values, and a population that views their future prospects with the jaundiced eyes of those fearing that everything of meaning to them will slip away as economic conditions continue to cause trepidation and fear, despite that the unemployment rate has dropped to a hugely acceptable level compared to other countries under economic duress, and the elevation of a Black American to the presidency has failed to live up to the original elation among the majority black residents of Ferguson.

The Ferguson City Council at a recent public hearing deliberated over a U.S. Justice Department agreement mandating a massive overhaul of Ferguson policing. At the site where the shooting of Michael Brown took place in August of 2014 there is a plaque to remember the young man. It 'remembers' him as a bright and happy individual, someone whose loss will be a source of grief to those who knew and loved him all the remaining years of their lives.

We tend to gloss over flaws when the subject of the discussion is gone forever. In that gone-forever state all that is recalled is whatever was good and worthwhile remembering; we re-write relationships and personalities, choosing what we retain, what to discard. In the signal event that hangs over Ferguson as a defining moment in the relationship between its black and its white residents, its consideration of itself as a stable society, its rejection of a 'militarized' police force, Michael Brown has become a revered figure of loss.

These images provided by the Ferguson Police Department show security camera footage from a convenience store in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, 2014, the day that Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. A report released Friday, Aug. 15, 2014, by Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson says the footage shows a confrontation between Brown and an employee at the store. The report says that Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, stole a box of cigars from the store shortly before Brown’s death. (AP Photo/Ferguson Police Department)

A big, strapping fellow with attitude, resentful of being politely asked by Darren Wilson, driving his police cruiser, and stopping to admonish two black youths that they really shouldn't -- perhaps for their own safety, and certainly in upholding public order -- be strolling at night, down the middle of any road, only to be ignored, and soon enough threatened, does pose a certain kind of sinister threat on a dark night when one lone officer confronts two young men out for trouble.

Trouble was what erupted in Ferguson in the way of violence, riots and threats galore once it became public that the police officer would not be arrested, charged and punished for comporting himself as an officer of the peace, determined to protect the citizens of Ferguson, while in the process shooting to death an unarmed black youth whose actions and demeanour he interpreted as a danger he had the obligation to face and terminate.

Ferguson Market and Liquor store is vandalized after the announcement of the grand jury decision Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. A grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed, black 18-year-old whose fatal shooting sparked sometimes violent protests. (AP/Jeff Roberson)

It is an unfortunate fact of life that human beings are unkind to one another; unkind putting it mildly. But that this episode is yet one and yet another of the many historical-into-the-present incidents of improper communication leading to hostility and then the inevitable confrontation and violence is unfortunate. Not even a learning moment, since nothing much is taken from it that can be of value for the future; it just seems destined to repeat itself ad infinitum.

But at least the good citizens of Ferguson are deeply involved in and resolved to do their part in seeing that someone of sound mind and intelligence may be elected to lead them and their country into whatever the future brings.