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There is a meme making the rounds on Facebook about a young man named DeAndre Joshua, the only person killed during the riots, looting and arson-fires in Ferguson, Missouri. His death has become fodder for online speculation, as people continue to claim Joshua was one of the unnamed witnesses, who testified before the Michael Brown grand jury.

However, he had nothing to do with the grand jury as he was in St. Louis at the time of Brown’s fatal shooting, though he was a childhood friend of the man who was walking in the street with Brown when Brown attacked Officer Darren Wilson. Furthermore, Joshua completed his sentence of ‘community service,’ for ‘resisting arrest’ in 2013.

So far there have been no rallies or news cameras, no signs or ribbons to mark the spot where someone shot Joshua once in the head, then set him on fire inside his car. His death appears to be nothing more than a footnote in the events of that ugly night.

After the president’s meeting with leaders on race, the Congressional Black Caucus took to the House floor to discuss the events in Ferguson, Missouri.

“The Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict former officer Darren Wilson was yet another slap in our face,” said Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio. “It was another painful reminder that just like with Trayvon Martin, and Tamir Rice, and so many others, that law enforcement officers kill our black and brown boys without repercussions.”

Then Congressman Hakeem Jeffries brought the “hands up, don’t shoot” pose to the House floor.

“’Hands up, don’t shoot’ — it’s a rallying cry of people all across America who are fed up with police violence in community after community after community…in Ferguson, in Brooklyn, in Cleveland, in Oakland,” Jeffries said.

So much for the rule of law.

There hasn’t been a day since October 9th, that I haven’t failed to think of my dog, Harley. In fact, I have time and again embarrassingly called each of the other three dogs by his name.

So it was a pleasant surprise when this arrived:

Thank you to both Baring Boulevard Veterinary Hospital and to Furry Friends Assistance Fund for remembering Harley with this gesture. It does my heart good.

An off-duty Akron, Ohio White police officer was fatally shot while confronting an armed Black man November 16th.

Justin Winebrenner and several friends were at a pub when a man became disorderly and kicked out of the pub. The man returned a short time later and brandished a handgun.

A staff member, who was aware Winebrenner was a police officer, alerted him to the situation.  Winebrenner and another off-duty officer confronted the man, who then opened fire.

One shot struck Winebrenner in the chest, killing him. The alleged gunman, Kenan Ivery, pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder and five counts of felonious assault.

Winebrenner served with the department for seven years and the Medina County Juvenile Detention Center for two years. He’s survived by a four-year-old daughter and fiancée.

And where is Winebrenner’s 15 minutes in the media-spotlight? Nowhere, as the story doesn’t fit the media’s ‘White cop kills Black kid’ template.

President Obama evoked Martin Luther King Jr., ghost on Black Entertainment Television claiming his daughters could someday face dangers from racism like those the civil rights legend battled a half-century ago: “I want my children to be seen as the individuals that they are, and I want them to be judged based on the content of their character and their behavior and their talents and their gifts.”

He might fear this – but he has no heart to actually do anything about it – which was evident when he refused defend his daughters after they we ‘bullied’ by a GOP congressman’s spokes woman. I wonder how emotionally damaged his daughters will be by the time he leaves office.

At first I was angry about MIT Professor Jonathon Gruber’s comment about the American people: “It’s a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter,” Gruber said at the Honors Colloquium 2012 at the University of Rhode Island.

Later while visiting Washington University at St. Louis in 2013 he said, “They proposed it (Obamacare) and that passed, because the American people are too stupid to understand the difference.”

But the more I thought about it – he’s correct – we American’s are stupid. There is plenty of proof online showing people (especially recent high school graduates and current college students)  can’t even answer the most basic of history, political or science questions:

• Who won the Civil War?
• Who did the U.S. gain its independence from?
• What year was the Declaration of Independence signed?
• Who is our Vice President?
• Is President Obama a lame duck?
• What is the largest state in the Union?
• How many hydrogen molecules in water?
• What is the name of the closest star to the earth?
• Pure water has a pH level of about?

Time and again we’ve watched late-night segments on the ‘Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno, ‘The Jimmy Kimmel Show’ or maybe Fox News’ ‘Watter’s World,’ with Jesse Watters, laughing at the answers people give to the simplest of questions. But if you think about it – while it  ‘makes’ for ‘good TV’ – it isn’t funny at all.

ANSWERS: The North, Great Britain, 1776, Joe Biden, yes, Alaska, two, the Sun, seven.

Every story of any unarmed citizen gunned down by police officers deserves public scrutiny. But that doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to the increasing national media bias and their template of ‘White cop kills Black kids.’

So what if that got turned around – ‘Black cop kills White kid?’

A naked and unarmed Gil Collar was shot and killed by a University of South Alabama campus police officer in October 2012. At the time of the shooting, Collar was using LSD and exhibiting erratic behavior around the police station on campus.

A two-minute video of Collar, from a security camera mounted on the campus police station at the university, recorded almost the entire incident including the shooting. Officers said that Collar was acting “aggressively” in the video, pounding on the window, walking away, then returning.

That’s when Officer Trevis Austin came outside with his gun drawn and aimed at Collar, shooting him once in the chest. The circumstances mirror those of the August 9th shooting death of Michael Brown, a Black unarmed man under the influence of drugs by Officer Darren Wilson, who is white, in Ferguson.

Jus’ like in Ferguson, Missouri, an Alabama grand jury refused to bring charges against Austin, in spite of the heavy pressure from the public. But unlike Ferguson, the media wasn’t around to fan riotors flames.

Collar’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against Austin, with a trial date set for February 2nd, 2015. But don’t worry, whatever the verdict, the national media is sure to ignore the outcome.

Stop being idle.
Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place.
Evaluate situations and take decisive action.
You can’t change what you refuse to face.
Making progress involves risk.
You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, October 24th, 1870, he lived in East Orange, New Jersey, where he attended school. And from the age of sixteen to nineteen, Tasker Oddie lived on a ranch in Nebraska.

After returning to New York City from Nebraska he attended night law school, from which he was graduated, and in 1895 was admitted to the New York Bar. Then in 1898 Oddie came to Nevada in the interest of his New York employers to investigate conditions in their mining, railroad, banking and other interests in that State.

He uncovered frauds which were being perpetrated on his employers, and as a result they recovered large sums of money which they had lost.

The following year Oddie headed for the mining field, going into the most inaccessible, sparsely inhabited and mountainous districts of Southern Nevada. He underwent hardships, working the most difficult manual labor, learning the practical side of mining as well as the scientific side.

Around 1900, Oddie became interested in the original discovery of the Tonopah mines with his friend, the famous Jim Butler, their discoverer, and they made a fortune in both gold and silver. Goldfield and other important mining camps were soon discovered as the result of the opening up of the Tonopah District, and millions of dollars a year were produced by each of these camps.

Their discovery meant the building of of new railroads, the new towns and the reemergence of mining industry in western Nevada. Unfortunately Oddie was so heavily invested in mining, banks, ranches, stock-raising and other industries that when the panic of 1907 hit, he was unable to weather the storm.

From 1901 to 1903, Oddie was Nye County District Attorney, from 1904 to 1908 State Senator and again from 1921 to 1933 and Governor from 1911 to 1915. During his tenure, women got the right to vote, a state motor vehicle law was sanctioned, mining safety legislation was endorsed, and there were improvements to workmen’s compensation benefits.

He also signed the charter creating Las Vegas on March 17th, 1911. Mount Oddie near Tonopah is named after him, as is Oddie Boulevard in Sparks.

Oddie died February 17th, 1950 in San Francisco, California, at the age of 79. He is buried at Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City, Nevada.

My friend – I’ll call him Martin for the purpose of this story – is a former deputy sheriff. Martin doesn’t frighten nor shake easily when it comes to encountering unknown situations.

Martin retired about a year ago, so I decided to visit him. Hours later, after driving to Siskiyou County in Northern California, we found ourselves on the front porch of his nearly finished cabin, enjoying the view.

Our conversation moved from one topic to the other until we fell on the subject of the supernatural. That’s when Martin told me a tale that left him frightened and chilled to this day.

He looked deeply into the bottom of the glass of whiskey he’d been sipping, seeing the event in his mind and searching for the words to begin the story. I sat quietly, waiting for him to begin.

“There was no moon that morning,” Martin explained, “So the only real light was from my cruiser’s headlights.”

He continued telling me that he was driving south along Lava Beds Highway, near Tulelake, south of the California-Oregon state line, his headlights piercing the dark along the two lane roadway. As he sped along, looking ahead towards the end of his high beams, only see a lone figure frantically waving to get his attention.

With his red and blue lights flashing, Martin slowed and cautiously approached what he could now see was a woman. He flicked his spot light around to see if anyone else might be nearby, possibly concealed or if she were the victim of a vehicle accident.

After radioing in his location, Martin got out of his cruiser and walked up to the woman. He couldn’t help but notice how young she looked, but how out of style he clothes appeared.

“There’s a woman over there in the irrigation ditch,” she told Martin.

“Okay,” he responded, “Stay here.”

Martin shined his flashlight in the direction the woman pointed, taking a few steps towards the ditch. He could see a smallish form laying in the dried mud.

He turned back towards the woman – but she was gone.

Martin passed his flashlight from side-to-side and could find no one in the area. With the disappearance of the woman, Martin retreated to his cruiser and called into dispatch, asking for back-up.

“As I sat there,” he stated, “I thought about how to best explain how I found what I suspected to be a body in that ditch.”

He then explained that though he knew it to be dishonest and against every thing he stood for, he knew he’d have to lie and falsify his written report about the discovery. I could tell that this bothered him.

“I’m not one that believes in ghosts and shit like that,” Martin told me, “But I don’t know how else to explain it.”

We sat there in silence for some lengthy minutes as he had nothing more to share and I didn’t want to press him with a deluge of questions. I could also tell he was reliving the moment in his head.

Later that evening, he showed me a clipping from a local paper: “An unidentified body was found and Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office deputies are investigating. The body was discovered in an irrigation ditch. The sheriff’s office says the body is severely decomposed, and likely had been submerged for two to four weeks in several feet of water in the ditch.”

With a long sigh, Martin concluded, “Guess there’s some crap we’re not supposed to understand in this world, huh?”