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I lived through the race riots and the burning of American cities in the sixties as a teenager growing up in Cleveland.

I was in the middle of two of the riots in Cleveland. The first was the riots in the Hough Ghetto in 1966 as a member of a church group that would go to that neighborhood and set up informal playgrounds on the vacant lots of tenements that had been torn down. The community leaders wanted us to continue once this broke out as a “stabilizing influence”. We ended up being guarded by National Guard jeeps with 50-cal machine guns mounted. I will never forget some of the black parents coming down to us “whites” and telling us if things got too hot (we could tell where the center of “action” was by watching the helicopters) we should go up into their tenement and they would hide us.

The second was the Glenville riots in 1968. These were much more organized. I was working as the sole night attendant in a gas station near downtown to earn money to go to university (Michigan). The authorities had banned sale of gasoline in containers because the rioters were using the gas to make Molotov cocktails. Several blacks came into the station and asked me to fill up several jerry cans with gas. When I told them I couldn’t, they pulled knives on me. Luckily for me, I had been letting Cleveland cops catch some sleep around the side of the station (they were stretched thin and were standing multiple shifts), and these a**holes made too much noise. The cop came around with his gun drawn, and got them on the ground and arrested them... or I might not be here today.

I am struck by how mesmerizing Farrakhan is as a speaker; reminds me of listening to Hitler’s speeches.

Louie may be a “nut”, but he is extremely dangerous. NEVER underestimate the ability of someone like him to motivate a riot.

I am glad Beck is at least giving a “heads up”. I don’t ever want to go through that sort of thing again.