Racial strife in Ferguson

I spent far too much of my weekend catching up on the events surrounding the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. It literally took an earthquake to shake the national media away from Ferguson for just a brief moment.

And just as quickly, the media swarmed again on the St. Louis suburb for Monday's funeral.

Ferguson is a story of utter and unrelenting failure on countless levels.

High on that list of failures is the dismal collapse of the Obama promise to usher in a new "post-racial" era in this country. Back in the utopian atmosphere of 2008, a majority of Americans believed -- actually and honestly believed -- that Obama could carry out his promise.

He and they were wrong.

But Ferguson in a larger context is also a display of the failure of trillions of dollars in federal tax money that has been targeted to raising the lifestyles of low-income Americans.

Poverty and the associated problems it brings is on full display in Ferguson.

Ferguson is also an example of the failure of the societal compact of personal responsibility and accountability. Many try to explain but none can justify the looting and violence that erupted long before the facts of the tragic episode were revealed.

But the premiere failure of Ferguson is the pathetic and predictable response by those on the liberal side of the political spectrum in this country who benefit from fanning the flames of racial strife to the detriment of this great country.

Far too many "leaders" on the left have prematurely resolved this law enforcement incident in their minds and have drawn a firm conclusion long before the full story unfolds.

When the White House sends more "official" representatives to Brown's funeral than to any military personnel killed in war, it's a sure sign that we're in trouble.

When the Attorney General travels to Ferguson not as the top law enforcement official in the land but as a "black man" who feels the family's pain, that too is a sign we're in trouble.

But not to be outdone, our old friend Rep. Lacy Clay (D-St. Louis) on Sunday said that if "justice" is not done in Ferguson, "there will be problems in the streets." By justice, Clay of course means a guilty verdict and prison time for the police officer who may well have been defending his life in the incident.

I could easily and accurately throw in the national media for their abundant and ongoing failures in Ferguson, but that would be too easy. We have come to expect failure from the left-leaning national media for some time now.

And, yes, the Ferguson police department failed as well by not fully and rapidly presenting the officer's version of the incident, revealing injuries (if there were injuries) and a minute-by-minute rundown of what transpired to counter the conspiracies and speculation by all of those impacted.

Ferguson and failure go hand in hand. But truth and justice have taken a backseat to the agendas that raise their ugly heads far too often in this divided nation.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.