Who Is To Blame?

Tears, anguish, sadness, anger, and frustration dampen my spirit this morning after yesterday’s disturbance in Charlottesville, Virginia.  I’ve tried to get the facts about what actually occurred, but haven’t really been able to do so.  What happened?  Surfing the cable channels and listening to the conjectures of the various pundits and reporters only added to my futile search for facts.  What happened?  I heard and read the reactions of many government officials and I still don’t know what created the violent chaos.  I’ve checked out the NYT and other press releases, but I’m still not sure exactly what happened?  Hopefully, today, I’ll learn more.

Maybe I’ll learn that the White Nationalist group consisted of only 40 or 50 people rather than hundreds (as reported via the different cable networks) attempting to peaceably assemble under their First Amendment rights.  Maybe I’ll find out if they all bore arms, wore helmets, and had brass knuckles and threw tear gas capsules at the counter-protesters.  Maybe I’ll get a clear picture about whether or not the protesters had their own militia to protect them. Maybe I’ll find out if most of the counter-protesters came from out-of-town and were paid to confront the White Nationalist protesters (as reported on the various cable networks).  What happened?  I don’t have a clear picture.  Do you?  

Do I want a clear picture?  Do I really want to know the facts for truth-sake?  Or do I want to simply know who to blame for yesterday’s violence and chaos?  To point my finger at somebody, some group, some politician, is a way of not having to look at the “blame” in me for the way things are.

Who started and continued the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan and the Middle East crisis?  Who ruined our water supply? Who is responsible for global warning?  Who put so many homeless people on our city streets?  Who crushed the poor?  Who makes our health care system the most expensive in the world?  Who is responsible for the racial, religious, and political divide?  Who poisoned the Chesapeake Bay and the oceans?  Who corrupted our banks, our politics, our judicial system?  Who has raped our natural resources? Who is responsible for this nation being racked with fear?  Who can I point to and say, “You are to blame for this, for that?  

I wonder if finding someone to blame would eliminate my tears, anguish, sadness, anger and frustration that overwhelms me just now?  I doubt it very much.