Professor Gates Controversy -- A Teaching Moment

Photo by Justin Ide, Harvard University Gazette

I started writing a blog entry 2 days ago about the recent arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by a Cambridge, MA, police officer. He was arrested for disorderly conduct after the police were called to his home for a possible break-in. It seemed to me at the time that Prof. Gates had over-reacted -- that if the police came to my door because of a reported break-in, I wouldn't be yelling and screaming like a crazy man -- that he probably deserved to be arrested. I decided not to post it then, because I didn't feel like I knew enough about the incident to make the judgement.

Two days later, I've read the police report, heard what the president had to say, and watched some of the coverage about the incident. I have changed my mind a bit. An African-American law professor from American University was on CNN making a good point. In the police report, the police officer stated he was trying to persuade Gates to go outside, because the acoustics in the house made it difficult to have the discussion since Professor Gates was yelling so much.

The acoustic? Really? Bad acoustics? The American University professor pointed out that to arrest Professor Gates, the officer needed to have Professor Gates be in a public place. You can apparently yell and scream all you want to in your own home perfectly legally, but the police officer knew he needed to get Gates outside to arrest this man accusing him of acting racist.

I still think Professor Gates probably was out of line and should have been more cooperative. However, the officer should have let the matter drop once he established Professor Gates was in his own home. I think the officer lured Professor Gates out of the house so he could arrest him as punishment for being accusatory and uncooperative.

This incident once again displays the brilliance of President Obama. He screwed it up at first with his comment that the police "acted stupidly," when he also didn't have all the facts. Then he very smartly turned it around, calmed everyone down, called on this to be a teaching moment. His statement today on the matter was a good resolution. I know a president from not so long ago that would never admit to any type of mistake, like starting a war with the wrong country.

Why Can’t Sarah Palin Just Go Away?

I opened the homepage to the Washington Post website and found just three stories relating to Sarah Palin. One of the main headlines near the top of the page was about a poll about Sarah’s popularity conducted by the Post and ABC News. Why was this necessary? Apparently, when you announce you’re going to quit your term as governor 18 months early, people start questioning your leadership ability. Though her popularity has dipped, with 53 percent of those polled having a negative opinion, what surprised me was the 40 percent of those polled had a positive opinion. What are they on?

Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry have an opinion piece in the Post titled, “What Palin Got Wrong about Energy.” It is a response to an opinion piece by Sarah (or whoever wrote it for her) from last week’s Post. According to Boxer and Kerry, what Palin got wrong was pretty much everything.

The third Palin-mentioned entry is a discussion piece by Timothy Shriver. He suggests Palin focus on fighting for her son and others with Down Syndrome. That would be a noble and important quest for the soon-to-be former governor. Obviously, that won’t happen. She’ll be on the lecture tour racking up the big bucks and stirring up pointless trouble on Fox News. I fear she will be around a long, long time. And, yes, I realize the irony of doing a blog post complaining how much exposure she is getting.