Last week I was sitting in my car at a red light. Directly to my left I saw a man sprinting down the sidewalk. He had just come out of a drug store and had something in his hand. A second later I saw a large man, whom I'm guessing was the manager of the store, come out the doors and begin chasing the running man. He stopped after a few steps and began attempting to wave down a police car parked across the road. By this time the light had turned green and I had, to my slight disappointment, to begin driving again. A few seconds later a police vehicle sped past me on it's way towards, again I'm guessing, the drug store and the running man. My reaction was, of course, one of incredible curiosity. I had never witnessed an actual robbery in progress, and it was quite absorbing. But after a few moments I began to wonder about the moral issues involved in the burglary. Is the man who had taken whatever from the drug store guilty without reason? What if he had just been trying to steal some jars of baby food for his child because he himself had not been able to acquire the funds to actually buy the merchandise? Of course, it is wrong to steal, but if one has a great enough reason to do so...Hmmm... Another element was that the robber was African-American and the store manager was white. The store was in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. What effect, if any, would this have on the issue of stealing? I find it odd still that even though an area can be heavily populated by blacks that the majority of the owners of stores and managers of them are white. It's sort of this subliminal racism, maybe.

Of course, the whole robbery scene was taking place whilst I was sitting in my car with "I Fought In A War" playing on my car stereo. I imagine that the robber was fighting his own war, and it seemed like he would have more to come.

Lee

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