Normally I could care less what happens in St. Louis. Not that I hate everything about the city, I have had some good times there, like sky-box seats to a Carninals game , a carriage ride with my wife one spring evening, accidentally stumbling onto a St. Patrick's Day party downtown and discovering the Morgan Street Brewery (great beer!).

That being said, St. Louis is a very Yankee city. It sits  {uncomfortably} on the edge of the state, almost as if it yearns to be on the other bank of the Mississippi, it would certainly be a better fit.

In today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Sylvester Brown writes about an incident which reminds me why I don't visit the city more often, and this time, my " I could care less" attitude has been replaced with a "this can not be ignored" attitude instead.

Brown writes...

"I had a sense of déjà vu Monday at America's Center. Earlier, local activist Anthony Shahid told me about a demonstration planned at noon. The event was timed to attract the attention of the thousands attending the annual National Baptist Congress of Christian Education convention, which kicked off this past weekend.

Shahid and other activists claim that the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC), which operates America's Center, has a "dismal" record of diversity and practices "employment discrimination." The goal, he said, is to call attention to the "plight of joblessness in St. Louis."

Shahid? Is this guy a muslim? ( I'll get back to that point later)

"Shortly before noon, hundreds of visitors bustled along Washington Avenue toting white plastic convention bags.

But something was about to go down. Security guards in blazers and ties, cell phones pressed to their ears, darted their eyes up and down the street. Half a dozen or so policemen arrived on the scene.

Then, all heads turned toward a sound from the west: "Say it loud! I'm black, and I'm proud!" shouted a group of about 60 marchers, carrying handmade placards, funeral stickers and caskets made of enamel and tin. An effigy of a black man, with a white noose around his neck, rested in one coffin.

"The caskets represent the economic murder of our people," Shahid would later tell me.

Someone shouted "About face!" The group halted in military fashion, turned toward the curious crowd and raised one gloved fist in the air.

Shahid, dressed in a light blue Ku Klux Klan outfit, paced before the crowd. He unleashed a barrage of accusations and insults — which I'm sure many in the crowd found derogatory — while dragging the black effigy in tow.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," a female police officer told a group of kids watching the demonstration.

She said to me in passing, "I'm all about free speech and all, but when language gets like this … "

The words needed to be harsh, Shahid later told me. "This city is almost 60 percent black, and we're still begging for jobs."

Let's see. The city is 60 % black and therefore the America's Center should hire these "protestors" on this basis alone?

A man by the name of Shahid targets a Baptist Convention, ( more evidence that this guy is a muslim?) dressed in a Klansman outfit, and dragging along an effigy of a black man in a noose for kicks. They terrorize tourist, they terrorize CHILDREN , they hurl insults because Anthony Shahid says "the words needed to be harsh".

The irony of all this is that Shahid says that they are doing it because they are "begging for jobs".

Call me crazy, but dressing in a Klansman suit , insulting the public, terrorizing children and dragging along the effigy of a black man in a noose, isn't the most effective way to land your "dream job".

The Post-Dispatch makes you buy this priceless photo however; you can "preview it" by clicking on THIS LINK .

Despite these men being "dressed for success" they just can't seem to achieve it. What can they do? Well they can write their representative, which would be this man...

St. Louis Represenative Talibdin "Taliban" El-Amin. Who could have been using his time in this year's legislative session to help his fellow muslims, eh hem I mean "constituents" but alas, he squandered his valuable time by trying to drum up a slavery apology and oh yeah, I almost forgot, trying to ban baking soda.

As a side note... where was Al Sharpton , Jesse Jackson, and the Southern Poverty Law Center while this protest was going on? Where was their public outcry, against an effigy of a black man in a noose, and the oppressive image of Shahid in a Klansman outfit? After all , I thought that Al, Jesse and the SPLC was supposed to fight the Klan, images of oppression and racial intimidation?

Perhaps if Shahid had called the tourist, the Baptists and the children "nappy headed ho's"... but I digress.

Clint, Missouri Bushwhacker

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