STARTING FIVE

The photo of the week

1. In My Tribe

Unsure whether it’s depressing or fascinating to note the similarities in the disputes between the College Football Playoff rankings and Ferguson (yes, I understand that someone died in the latter).

Fact: All of us belong to a tribe, like it or not.

Opinion:  It is a measure of our enlightenment when we are able to look beyond whether or not our tribe is in the right and search instead for the truth (Hey, JDubs, if I wanted a sermon, I’d watch The Newsroom). Whether you are a Ferguson protester or not, whether you believe Ohio State belongs in the final four or not, the first step is to assess all the facts and/or information available. It’s not an a la carte table. Some of the facts will not abet your case. Disregard them and you only imperil the chances that anyone will take your argument seriously.

Fact: Tribes are like concentric circles. If Mars Attacks, we are all humans. If the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, we are all Americans. If Rosa Parks is denied a seat on a bus, we are all people who believe in equal rights. Likewise, we are all football fans. Then we are all fans of college over the NFL. Then we are “S-E-C! S-E-C!” (“Pawwwwwwlllll!”). Then we are War Damn Eagle.

Opinion Laced with Fact: The Selection Committee bears many similarities with the Grand Jury. They are charged with evaluating reams of evidence and then evaluating what evidence carries more value. They know going in that they are never going to please everyone because the truth is relative in both cases. And people, as noted, usually prefer to side with their own tribe if there’s even the most remote possibility that their tribe will prevail in a dispute.

Baylor has the same record as TCU, plays in the same conference as TCU, beat TCU, and is behind TCU in the Playoff Rankings

Fact: Some people will just choose not to accept what they see or hear. Baylor beat TCU head to head. Yes, it was a 21-point comeback in the fourth quarter at home and the Bears were aided by not one but two PI calls. But they won.

Opinion: If it’s between these two teams, that should carry more weight.

Fact: Oregon has one loss. So does Mississippi State, TCU, Baylor, Alabama and Ohio State. That some people automatically place the Ducks and Crimson Tide in a strata above the other three is opinion.

Fact: A man was shot to death on a road in the noon hour and the circumstances of that death and who’s to blame will never be 100% accepted. Unlike a death that involved some of those same details, there is no Zapruder film here (and even in that situation, where film exists, the Who Why and How of that killing still provokes dispute).

If Officer Wilson is smart, and if he cares about keeping the peace, last night’s TV interview will be his last TV interview.

Fact: All of the Grand Jury testimony is available for your perusal. None of the Selection Committee discussions are.

Fact: Michael Brown behaved like a bully, using his imposing size and strength and with total disregard for the law and other people, to rob a store less than an hour before his death, a death in which the key witness argues that he behaved in exactly the same way.

Opinion: That is relevant.

Opinion: That is irrelevant.

Opinion: Michael Brown is not a martyr, as much as people would like him to represent all the minorities who were wrongfully shot to death by police (and there they have a huge point). And Darren Wilson probably did not act as skillfully as he portrayed in an interview with George Stephanopoulos that was conducted three months after the fact. Does this tragedy unfold as it did if Michael Brown had been white? Probably not. Nor does it unfold this way if Darren Wilson had been black.

Radio Raheem was a gentle giant

Beneath it all was a simmering hostility and mistrust, and that this occurred in the summer of the 25th anniversary of Do The Right Thing should not be lost on you. I don’t know any police officer who would attempt to pull a large man INTO his vehicle, and I don’t know any sane citizen who would incite a tussle with a cop, an armed cop, unless he felt his own life was already in danger.

On the other hand, I don’t know if it was absolutely necessary to tell Mr. Brown to get on the sidewalk, or to speak to him as if he were a child. And I don’t know the manner in which Officer Wilson said it. And you and I don’t know if he really saw the cigarillos in Brown’s hand, or if that’s just some after-the-fact knowledge that provides an explanation as to why he pulled his vehicle up diagonally.

Opinion: Step out of your tribe. Take a good look at how the other side sees things. We’re all headed to the same place, anyway. Life is fatal. Only the expiration date is up for dispute.