2592

"April 29th, 1992/ There was a riot on the streets tell me where where you...." The opening lyrics to Sublime's ode to the Los Angeles Riots. The fall out of racist actions taken by the Los Angeles police and the injustice that followed. Flash ahead 22 years to 2014 and racism is still the predominant topic of the day. This time due to venom spewed forth by Clipper owner Donald Sterling. The fact that racism still exists is an indicator of how primitive our society remains. Fortunately, this time justice appears to have been served. The NBA took swift and decisive action over Mr. Sterling's comments. This goes against how most justice is doled out. Usually there are long, drawn out hearings and committees formed to inquire into actions, blah, blah, blah. Now I agree that justice should be served, and nobody should be tried, convicted, and executed without proper evidence. However, in the case of Mr. Sterling, there was no denying the evidence and the sentence was handed out rapidly. The NBA got this one right. This is a scar, that though it will remain, will not be visible forever because corrective action was applied swiftly. I think had NBA commissioner Adam Silver done anything other than the absolute right thing, we could have been on the precipice of another April 29th riot. We've already had one, another would have been unconscionable. It's nice to see we are finally evolving, at least some of us.