Glass City...Shattered

My hometown made national headlines yesterday, and it had nothing to do with TomKat.

See, there was a riot yesterday in Toledo -- spurred by the planned march by some boneheaded nazi group who wanted to protest "black gangs" in Toledo. Now, why these idiots thought my hometown was any of their concern is beyond me. Quite frankly, I think that they just come to cities like mine to make problems. As far as most of us in Toledo knew, we didn't have any problems with "black gangs" - or gangs of any kind for that matter -- white, black, purple or green. But these out-of-town and out-of-touch-with-reality white guys thought they knew what was going on here in T-town.

Well, up until yesterday there hadn't been a riot in town since the race riots of the 1960s. And then yesterday at noon, all hell broke loose. And the best part is, the marching nazis..well, they didn't even get to march, instead they left town with a police escort (and their tails between their legs, presumably, as cowards usually do).

And my city was left in pieces. Groups of men, women and teens threw rocks and bricks at passing cars, the mayor, police and firefighters. At least one building was burned. Several homecoming dances were cancelled. Members of the media and police force were injured. And our mayor, who is seriously lacking in the charisma department, had to go on national television and explain to the country what happened here in northwest Ohio.

It's very disconcerting to see one's hometown on the national news under the headline "Race Riots." We are still under a state of emergency and an 8 p.m. curfew is still in effect. No one really knows what the curfew means -- from what I can gather, we can still go to the movies, but we can't just stand around on the streets. Or something like that.

The saddest part of all is this: the cowardly nazis who came to town, determined to cause problems, succeeded in every way. They got just what they wanted -- violence and mayhem --and left town as quickly as they came. I say good riddance to them.

Now my city is left to focus on how to get past all of this.