Not all riots are created equal.

The only thing that Tehran has in common with Los Angeles, California these days is the fact that both cities were recently besieged by large crowds rallying around a common cause. In Tehran it was the outrage over what many people in Iran believed to be a sham of an election; and they were, in essence, protesting against what they perceived to be a lack democracy in their own country.

In Los Angeles, the crowds were taking to the streets; not for democracy, but in jubilation. Jubilation that their professional basketball team had won the National Basketball Association championship. See it's like this: In A-merry-ca the very same thing that might have happened in Iran, is what many folks in this country thinks happened here. But A-merry-cans did not take to the streets and act like lunatics and defy authority in a quest for justice. No, A-merry-cans have to be happy and in a mood to celebrate before they riot.

You gotta love it. We only tear up shit and riot when we are happy. Unless, of course, we happen to be talking about inner city black folks. They riot for perceived injustice like the Iranians, and they do a pretty good job of tearing shit up as well.

But I am not mad at the Iranians, and I only get mad at inner city black folks when they riot and tear up there own neighborhoods. That defeats the purpose of the riot in the first place. The Iranian uprising is a righteous cause. Whether these people were robbed of a fair election process or not is irrelevant. The fact is that many of these people believe that they were robbed and they are doing something about it. The Iranian government is trying to keep the images away from us, but thanks to what might be the worlds' first Internet revolt, we are seeing what is going down over there on our television sets and lap tops.

Sometimes I wish we had the passion for this stuff like our friends in other countries. But it's hard to be a revolutionary when your stomach is always full, you have hot and cold running water, and a big screen television to watch your favorite basketball team is on the wall.