Regarding Baltimore, here’s David Simon, the mastermind behind HBO’s The Wire, talking about America at a conference in Australia in 2013. The conference being “The Pop Up Festival of Dangerous Ideas”. In referencing “the brick”, Simon, in essence, predicts the Baltimore riots two years before they happen.

Most anyone I’ve talked to who’s seen The Wire loves it. You might already, but if you can’t relate the show’s complexities back to this speech then I must say you’re missing the point.

The notion of conflict may seem wrong, or scary, or inconvenient, but often it’s necessary: not only for genuine peace, but also for genuine progress.

Let me clarify that I do not embrace a rush to war or violence or riots (as media outlets have depicted this); however, I am wary when ‘one side’ always wins – be it a government against its people, a culture or race controlling another, a dogma eradicating others, a sex dominating another, etc.

In other words, I embrace, or at least I try to embrace, valid struggles for freedom and justice. Unfortunately, in this debate and others, the need for valid struggles is often lost on those fortunate enough to already afford them.

It should go without saying that I enjoy considering different arguments, so if you disagree then please don’t think you’ll offend me by stating it. In fact more power to you for the effort, or rather, the conflict.