This poll obviously drops under the shadow of a still-simmering Ferguson, Missouri. And about two-and-a-half years after the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida.

(By the way, the same pollsters asked about the president's handling of Ferguson, with only 41 percent approving. That's what happens when you can't be bothered to leave the tee box when Americans abroad are beheaded while their domestic counterparts get tear gassed.)

While it's certainly shocking how far we have to go with regard to race, an increasingly militarized police force is far more unsettling.

But maybe that's what happens when you have apartheid in America. What else can you call Ferguson? Blacks make up less than 10 percent of its civil servants (whether it's cops or politicians) while comprising more than two-thirds of its residents.

I readily admit I don't have all the facts in this case. A police officer shot an unarmed black man six times — twice in the head. Whether it was justified or in self-defense has yet to be determined.

And while some protesters certainly went too far in looting stores, zealous police officers wielding military hardware presented a picture that made Birmingham, Alabama, fire hoses look downright quaint.

This is an issue that should cross party lines. Democrats obviously shudder at the images of what could be seen as a race war playing out on the evening news, while Republicans — or Libertarian poster child Rand Paul — who protest the overreach of making people buy health insurance should take to the streets over this kind of government force exerted on this citizens. But maybe they're allergic to tear gas — a known abortificant, by the way. Hope none of those protesters were pregnant.

We always talk about our fear of big brother. But why do we always assume it's Uncle Sam when it could just as easily be George Wallace?

All I know is, when I look at the pictures from my home state and see footage of what could just as easily be the West Bank, I think maybe sometimes we argue over the wrong things.