Columnist apparently couldn't help himself

I try to read most of Michael Barone's columns published by the DH. I know I'll usually disagree, but I admire the way he tends to leave out important facts or spin them to fit his narrative. So I was surprised that I was agreeing with a lot of his theorizing in last Sunday's column - that a lot of our problems today, nationally and internationally, are the result of economic and political projections of the 1990s not being able to foresee some of the events that have taken place in the last 25-plus years.

Who could have predicted that Putin or Xi would become the dictators they are? Who wasn't shocked by 9/ll? Who anticipated the financial collapse of 2008? Spot on, Michael.

But then came the "Bam. Pow. Awkkk." moment. I guess his conservative heart of hearts just couldn't resist tossing the old reliable right-wing grenade, blaming the Black Lives Matter movement for the upsurge in violent crime in 2014 and again in 2020. How convenient to forget the existence of 350 million guns in a country of 330 million people, or the weapons industry that supplies them, supported and encouraged by the NRA and the legislators they have bribed.

How many of the thousands of instances of police brutality toward minorities did Michael overlook? And did it slip his mind that a recent president encouraged supporters at his rallies to rough up dissenters, while embracing white supremacists marching under his banner and encouraging followers to assault the Capitol in an attempt to illegally remain in office?

Although I continued to agree with the rest of Barone's column that day, I really thought the cheap shot at BLM, although typical, was unnecessary.

Tom Dillivan

Schaumburg