self-defense

 I think the first ghetto was in Venice, or one of those Italian city-states of the Renaissance, and maybe were more protective than punitive.  All the Jews were ordered to live there and I think they had some kind of curfew when they had to return to it at night.  

I think black neighborhoods began to be called ghettos about the time that we were kids, maybe five or ten years before Elvis sang that famous song.  Originally black people were not allowed by law to live anywhere else, and if they knew what was good for them they didn't go anywhere else, well maybe if they had to to get to their jobs, but they certainly didn't linger. 

Those apartheid laws were gone by the time we were kids but if they moved into certain white areas like Gage Park they could have their house burned down, and as far as even going there until maybe forty years ago I never saw a black face in Gage Park because they would be putting themselves in danger.

But seceding, that sounds like a step backwards.  Didn't Abraham Lincoln say A house divided against itself cannot stand?  Shouldn't all Americans be standing together?  I'm not sure what problem Beagles thinks this is supposed to cure, and it sounds very un-American to me.  And just for myself I have to say I am getting sick of peckerwoods telling us how to run our cities.

Speaking of peckerwoods I am thinking of that Rittenhouse guy.  We still don't have all the facts, but what I am hearing is that he went into the other side's area brandishing his super gun and when they saw it and tried to take it away from him, clearly sensing danger, he shot three of them.  His defense will likely be self defense because when they tried to take away his weapon they were attacking him.  But weren't they kind of in their rights?  Wasn't what they were doing self-defense also?  Did they have to wait until he was actually firing on them to try to disarm him?  Isn't that a little late?

I understand that some of the proteste/looters were armed also.  If they came at the cops with guns drawn I think the cops would have been right to shoot them.

Like I said we don't know all the facts yet, but if I feel threatened by a guy with a gun do I have to wait until he is aiming at me and has his finger on the trigger before I can do anything about it?