Taking advantage of shootings

By any definition, this past week has been both tragic and unsettling in countless ways. Yet by now we have come to reluctantly accept the growing polarization along racial lines that erupted once again this week.

Pundits galore have opined with their views on the underlying cause of this division and yet, even in the arena of competing opinions, there remains a deep divide.

We can't seem to agree on anything.

Tragedies like that which unfolded in Dallas this past week are ripe for conspiracy theorists. This is nothing new.

A quick glance shows websites still display the conspiracies concerning the assassination of President Kennedy as well as the lingering conspiracies concerning the Twin Towers terrorist attack.

But I have to say that one conspiracy theory over the Dallas attack takes the cake.

Johnetta Elzie, who rose to her own unique fame as a founder of the Black Lives Matter group, believes the Dallas shooter and Dallas police conspired to stage the assassination of five police officers to give the Black Lives Matter movement a bad name.

You honestly can't make up this stuff.

Ms. Elzie believes that a government program on counter intelligence was implemented to put the Black Lives Matter movement in a bad light.

Quick note to Ms. Elzie: The Black Lives Matter organization needs no help in garnering a bad reputation.

According to the Black Lives Matter activist, the federal government back in the '50s developed a counterintelligence program to keep tabs on groups like the Ku Klux Klan, communists groups and others.

Fast forward 60 years, and Ms. Elzie is convinced that the feds and the Dallas police -- and apparently the deceased shooter -- conspired through this old program to put the Black Lives Matter movement in a bad light.

To be kind, Ms. Elzie is delusional. What makes her warped sense of reality so frightening is that she has a following within the Black Lives Matter movement and many of those lemmings will actually believe her ramblings.

At critical times like today, the last thing society needs are fringe lunatics spouting obvious nonsense. And social media puts this nonsense on steroids.

We should not be surprised that many within the political arena hope to take advantage of these tragedies to advance their personal agendas.

But the last thing we needed or expected were the incoherent rants of supposed leaders whose singular goal is to sow the seeds of doubt and create a dangerous environment.

Those who seek to label the Black Lives Matter movement a terrorist organization have their arguments bolstered by the likes of Johnetta Elzie.

Her delusions should be disavowed by all and her 15 minutes of fame should come to an abrupt halt.

Michael Jensen is the editor of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.