I get the fact that a lot of people are angry with the decision that was handed down by the grand jury in Ferguson, Kansas. I understand the feeling that justice is elusive and nonexistent in American courts. I have been involved in protests in the past. What I don’t get is sure selfishness and stupidity when asserting your first amendment rights in a protest.

So since no one is setting rules for these protests I have taken it upon myself to set some rules.

1. You have a right to state your opinion and to protest. What you don’t have a right to do is set businesses on fire. In my opinion if you do this your sentence should be to rebuild the business and repay any loss that these businesses have sustained.

2. You have a right to share you anger but you do not have a right to loot and steal from businesses which are supporting your community.

3. You have a right to march and protest in public but if you endanger or inconvenience anyone else that right stops and you get your outspoken opinion, along with your body, put in a jail cell.

4. You do not have a right to antagonize or harass the police officers who are trying to keep you from being an idiot. They are people just like you are and they deserve respect.

5. You do not have a right to irritate someone by stopping a freeway because there may be an emergency vehicle with a black baby on that freeway that is trying desperately to get to the hospital. (Do you hear me, Dallas?)

At first I was concerned that the protests would be peaceful and was praying that no one would get hurt. Then I happened to turn on the local news and I saw several hundred stupid people in Dallas blocking a major freeway in protest. I stopped praying and got very angry.

I had just driven through Dallas last night and it took me a hell of a long time because of wrecks. If I had been driving through it tonight, I would have been beyond pissed if I had to wait for an hour or two because of protests.

Before writing this blog post I searched to see what my community had done for protests. We had six protesters and it was led by a white lady. They were peaceful and caused no one any harm. That is why I live in Fort Worth and hate Dallas. We just got so much more class. (Exception being the family court judges and lawyers. They have no class and don’t even know how to spell the word.)