Like most normal people in this country, I watched last week’s events in downtown Dallas unfold with horror and disgust. In total 14 were shot, 12 were police officers, five of the officers were killed. The officers were doing nothing more than protecting a peaceful protest, a protest of the very police who were protecting them – for the actions of other police officers. My heart is absolutely broken for these officers and their families.
I say “most normal people” here because not everyone reacted this way. A disturbingly large fringe element celebrated these cold-blooded domestic terrorist killings and vowed to kill even more officers. They claim all officers are bloodthirsty racists who deserve to die because of the actions of individual officers. What kind of a nation have we become?
More than any time in my more than half century of life I see a highly polarized “us vs. them” mentality. It doesn’t matter if it is related to race, religion, politics, profession or any of a list of preferences that make up our lives. It’s as if the moral fabric that bound us together as a nation, as a people, has been ripped away and every conceivable faction is now violently fighting for dominance claiming they ‘matter’ more than everyone else.
Where does this come from? Sadly, I say it comes from the top. Our local, state and national leaders who refuse to hold individuals accountable for their own choices and actions and instead use the publicity of select, hand picked criminal and terrorist events to further their political agendas. They blame public intolerance and a lack of moral sophistication for the criminal actions of one. They blame entire classes of law-abiding citizen for the criminal actions of one. They blame inanimate objects for the criminal actions of one. Our President, once again mere hours after this senseless violence occurred and while victims were still bleeding and fighting for their very lives; called for more gun control.
In 2008 our nation elected our first African-American President. At the time I thought to myself – This could finally bring an end to the racial divide in our country. Instead, I’ve seen the leader of our nation stoke the fires of race and hatred even further. Instead of moving us forward to fulfill the destiny of Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he has pushed us back 50 years to the era that prompted King to march. One passage from King’s speech seems to have been lost by the current generation of citizens and leaders.
“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
We as a nation cannot place the needs of anyone or any group above that of others. In order to be a nation of laws, a nation of morals, a nation of equals, no one must be above the law or subject to a different set of rules than others. Those individuals who break the law – and those individuals alone – must be brought to justice and suffer the consequences of their actions in order for all of us to be equal and free.
There is absolutely no justification in the world for this type of indiscriminate attack on our nation’s law enforcement officers. The vast, vast, vast majority of our officers serve with honor and distinction each and every day; in conditions and through issues most would turn their heads in disgust or flee from. Yet they continue to serve as the thin blue line that separates us from lawlessness, making themselves a target of contempt and bullets.
A quote from Dallas Police Chief David Brown in the immediate aftermath of this attack adds some well-needed perspective. “We’re not gonna let a coward who would ambush police officers change our democracy. Our City, our country, is better than that.”
To those five officers in Dallas and numerous more around the nation who have given their lives in the service and protection of others, we salute you and vow to honor your sacrifice by never succumbing to the hate, the rhetoric or the violence of others.
Bob
#oddstuffing, #dallaspd, #moralitylost