Ferguson-20

I am talking to the LinkedIn community today, because more than any other group I know, it is comprised of impressive leaders who can make a difference in the world. Right here, and right now. You are not just professionals, you are opinion leaders and thought leaders. You care about the wider world around you. You act.

Ferguson, Mo. is dying, but quite possibly not for the reasons you might believe.

Before I speak to the second death in Ferguson, let me acknowledge the first. 

Michael Brown and the criminal justice system both lost last night in Ferguson, Mo. 

There will be no public laying out of the facts before a jury of one's own peers there, at least as relates to local authorities are concerned. As a result, there will be no easy path to healing for those who feel the system does not work for them. This has to be said, and acknowledged. 

The pain for those who have experienced it is real. The pain of parents who have lost a child here is real. Whether the child was 'ideal' by your and my standards is irrelevant. Without acknowledgment and consideration, there can be no healing. 

We will now, each of us, have to make up our own minds as to what happened on that fateful afternoon in Ferguson, Mo. 

We will have to make up our own minds as to the appropriateness, or inappropriateness of the actions of both the unarmed youth, Michael Brown, and the officer, Darren Wilson. And there will be no easy answers here. 

Facts surrounding the death of Michael Brown will be hotly debated for some time to come. 

Debated like Trayvon Martin was debated. 

Debated like the Rodney King verdict was debated, following that devastating verdict in 1992, and in the aftermath of which, the likes of Operation HOPE was founded by me to uplift people in that same community. 

Rainbows, only follow storms. Here's hoping for a rainbow in Ferguson.

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