The Aug. 12 article "Seven global lessons from a teachable event," by Ramesh Thakur, was beautifully written by a man whose academic credentials could easily place him working in a Harvard University classroom teaching political science — right next door to professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Let me share with you the lesson that I have already taught my black grandchildren from this event. My grandchildren are teenagers, so I try to keep my lessons short and simple. No matter how powerful you become — or think you have become — if a police officer casually asks you to identify yourself, it is a very real crime not to accurately do so. And before you start considering how abused your feelings might be for such an intrusion, consider that just last year 138 police officers died in the United States while attempting to protect its weaker citizens from stronger, more ruthless ones.
To protect our loved ones and our property, we must give the police special powers to intervene in our daily lives. It is most often a difficult, dangerous and thankless job; and you could not pay me enough money to do it.
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