"Your attitude will dictate everything that happens."

Most of us have loved ones. These, of course, are people (and sometimes pets) we are there for, people we would die for, if it were necessary. When one of those loved ones is dying, when nothing we do can help, we strive to be there for that loved one so that he or she is surrounded by love at that moment.

Ryan and Tamishia Moats were on their way to Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, Texas on March 18 to be with Ms. Moats' mother, who was dying of breast cancer. When the message came, as I'm sure it did, that it appeared she would pass away that evening, the Moatses did what most people in their situation would do: they headed for the hospital to be with her.

For those who didn't watch this on the Today Show this morning or hear about it, the facts are this: Ryan Moats, an NFL player, was at the wheel. Coming to a red light, he waited until there was traffic had cleared the intersection, then rolled through the red light so that his wife, Tamishia, could see her mother before her mother died. The reports did not say that he shot through the red light at a high rate of speed, recklessly endangering others on the road; he waited until traffic cleared, then rolled through the intersection. Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell turned on his lights and siren to pull Moats over. Moats pulled over less than a minute later in the hospital parking lot, according to reports. Moats and his wife, who are both African-American, tried to explain the situation to Powell, who is white.

The incident was caught on the police cruiser's videocamera. Apparently, it showed the couple telling the officer that Ms. Moats's mother was near death and that they wanted to see her before she died. At one point, the officer informed the couple that "Your attitude will dictate everything that happens" 1.

Although ordered back into the car, Ms. Moats finally ran into the hospital while Powell argued with her husband. According to Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, "When we...reviewed the tape, we were embarrassed, disappointed...(Powell's) behavior was not appropriate" 2. Kunkle went on to say that "the video showed that Moats and his wife 'exercised extraordinary patience, restraint in dealing with the behavior of our officer,' and that (Moats) 'handled himself very, very well'" 3. While many people might use their fame in this case, Moats did not "identify himself as an NFL football player or expect an kind of special consideration" 4.

How about consideration for being human? For trying to carefully get to a dying relative's side? True, Ryan Moats did run a red light, but only after stopping and making sure it was safe, and only in an extenuating circumstance. As it was, the thirteen minutes that Powells argued with Moats, pulling his gun on Moats at least once, was long enough that Moats and his father-in-law just missed being with Moats's mother-in-law before she died of breast cancer.

I'm white. Yet I can't help wondering if Officer Powell would have treated another white man this way. I wonder if he would have treated, say, Donald Trump or Bill Gates this way.

Here's a really outrageous idea: what if we really looked at people as, well, people? If Powells had listened to what Ryan and Tamishia were saying and assisted them, rather than simply seeing an African-American couple who had gone through a red light, that would have made a bad situation--her mother dying--a little easier because of another's compassion. If he'd given Moats a ticket after assisting them, fine. But treat people, regardless of race, gender, any of our many differences, as people.

That's my point.

1, 2, 3 and 4 are quoted from a BayNews9 article titled, "Dallas Officer delayed NFL player as relative died." It is an AP article found at: http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2009/3/27/453231.html.