ABUSE OF....EGOS?

In case you just woke up from a coma, or were living in a cave in a remote part of the world - the below is a quick synopsis of the Gates arrest that sparked heated debates about race relations in this country:

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested at his home last week by members of the Cambridge police force.

Why?

For breaking into his own home.

Yup.

The story goes like this: Gates had just returned from China to his Cambridge home and discovered his front door jammed.

He opened his back door with his key and tried unsuccessfully from inside his home to open the front door. Eventually, Gates and his driver forced the door open from the outside. The professor was inside for several minutes when a police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, appeared at his steps and asked him to step outside. (The police had been called by a suspicious white neighbor who saw two black men doing something (?) outside a home in her neighborhood.)

This is point that is fueling heated debates: what exactly was the exchange between both parties that led to the arrest of a noted Harvard professor - in his own home - on the charges of disorderly conduct? (For a full report of the story click here.)

Regardless of who said what - methinks that although both Professor Gates and Officer Crowley were caught up in a competition of who's ego was bigger and better, most of the blame rests on Officer Crowley. I think he arrested the professor just to teach him the lesson of who was "bigger" than the other with regards to power.

So to me, this is not a question of race, but a question of over-sized male egos wallowing in personal self-importance issues.

And this this battle is even older and more violent that the battle of the sexes...or even the battle between races.

Men will be men. And most of the time - just plain old egotistical ASSHOLES with super-fragile egos.