Friday column: You could be right, Albert; however ...

The distinction between the past, present and future, Einstein said, is merely an illusion.

Tell that to the good people of Baltimore, who this week have seen Ravens rookie Tony Fein and police Sgt. Joseph Donato embroiled in a dispute that’s spread — via newspapers and especially talk radio — to the rest of the community.

Sunday, Donato, who is white, arrested Fein, who is black, at a Harborplace restaurant after getting a call from mall security that a group of men at the counter were passing around a large silver object that could be a handgun.

It turned out to be a cell phone.

As he was investigating, Donato says, he twice ordered Fein to stand, but the player refused, then pushed Donato in the chest and knocked him to the ground. Thus, police say, the arrest.

Fein’s agent, Milton “Dee” Hobbs Jr., says Fein didn’t disobey Donato, claims that what really happened was that Donato saw a large, African-American man in a baggy, hooded sweat shirt and over-reacted — in other words, racial profiling. Thus, Hobbs says, the arrest.

Now, into Einstein’s “illusion” between yesterday and today.

— Hobbs noted there had been a gang shooting at the mall just the week before, which led to beefed-up police enforcement and a heightened sensitivity by mall security.

— In 1998 as a relatively new officer, Donato had a drug suspect stand over him, point a gun at him and pull the trigger. The gun jammed. Does that brush with death ever completely leave Donato’s mind when he approaches possible confrontations? How could it?

— What’s known about Fein’s background is limited, but it would be somewhat amazing if the 6-2, 245-pound black man hasn’t had a brush with stereotyping in his life, which could explain his over-reaction, if Donato’s account is accurate. But is it?

Donato is a 15-year cop with a good record; Fein is an Army veteran with a good record. So, who to believe? I have no idea. But the case, reminiscent of the recent dust-up between a white officer and a black Harvard professor, has been predictably divisive, as events often are when the present is seen through the lens of the past.

As in South Africa, for instance, where the decision by the Monaco-based International Association of Athletics Federations to have track star Caster Semenya undergo sex-determination testing has been painted as a vestige of colonial domination.

“We are not going to allow Europeans to define and describe our children,” said Leonard Chuene, the president of Athletics South Africa.

So, back to Einstein. I won’t argue for or against his point. I hardly have the brainpower to do that. But from my observation of life, I have to give the last word not to the physics genius but to a literary one.

“What is past is prologue,” Shakespeare wrote, and, unfortunately that appears to be all too true.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.