You should be ashamed...

Tonight as my children slumber peacefully in their beds, I watch the news. This is something rare for me - I prefer not to fill my head with the negativity so often broadcast these days. However tonight I am filled with a curiosity that leaves me feeling sick to my stomach.

We as the human species have come so far from the hunter-gatherer days in our early history. We are smart, logical, technologically advanced - but tonight I wonder what the mother's of these violent protestors are thinking.

Are your mothers and fathers proud of your looting, destruction and blatant disregard for life and property? Do they cheer you on as they watch you crawl through a broken door in the liquor store - with your pockets and arms full of stolen goods? Is your father congratulating himself on raising a son or daughter who drenches a police car in lighter fluid and subsequently igniting it into a blaze? Would your grandmother or great grandmother be proud of the way you threw glass bottles at police officers or fired your gun into a crowd?

Perhaps you are a parent yourself...

Would you change your actions if you knew your young son or daughter was watching you on live television? In this day and age your actions will live on for eternity thanks to the internet. Perhaps one day this will be part of a history class and they may see their mother or father's face on a video shown for historical purposes.

Would you be proud of that?

What purpose does the violence serve? In this country it seems we still have problems - not of color - but of entitlement. Inequalities exist everywhere - and I ask you - violent protestor - how is your violence going to improve these things? How will breaking windows, taking property that is not yours, and disrupting life - how will those things bring change?

This is humanity at its worst...

A life was lost - but how many more lives have been lost because of the protesting? How many more people will have to die tonight, tomorrow or the next day?

One of the reasons I don't watch the news is because I don't want to have to explain beheadings, looting, murders, drug abuse - to my kids as they stop and stare at the screen. They need to know that the world is good - at least mostly.

If this is ever going to end - people have to set aside the color excuses. They need to treat each other as people and not as colors. Stop using color as an excuse and start looking at your individual actions. I wasn't there when the young man was killed - and neither were most of the individuals protesting and rioting. However, I have to trust the judicial system because that is what they are there for. It's sad for the family who is grieving - I accept this.

What I don't accept, however, is the reaction. Be the change you want to see in the world. Surely these people don't want to return to a world where martial law is supreme - as it is not ideal for any one on either side.

So I go back to my original question for the violent protestors - Didn't your parents teach you better? Or did you set their houses on fire when you didn't like the way they answered your questions when you were a child? It's time to end the temper tantrums and move forward. Use that energy to do something good - stop wasting time and resources.

I think I will go back to turning off the news as a rule....