It seems like the world is spinning out of control. Gone crazy. (And yet...everyone always feels that way, and the world has always been like this. Right?)
Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York City, and now two cops are killed. In revenge? Retaliation?
Slogans and t-shirts abound. "Black Lives Matter" "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" "I Can't Breathe" "Breathe Easy, Don't Break the Law" "I Can Breathe" "Hands Up, Don't Loot"
So many of these have an undertone of anger, hatred, and an unwillingness to see the other's point of view.
Someone got in trouble for saying "All Lives Matter", because the slogan is "Black Lives Matter", and changing it detracts from the main focus.
Yet all lives DO matter, it's just that we're particularly concerned about black lives at this moment.
I don't really know what I could say that would be little more than hot air. Something said to show I've picked my side, something anyone on the other side will automatically dismiss.
I imagine how someone whose mind is already made up would tune me out the minute I start to say something they can peg into a slot.
Oh, here's the argument that _____. That people who aren't breaking the law have nothing to fear. Or that black people feel particularly abused by the police, and have reasons to be less trusting.
They've heard it all, and dismissed it already. What really matters, to them, is that the dead men committed crimes. Or that the police were protected by a system that didn't even seriously investigate the incident.
And now, with this cop-killing, it makes it even worse. (Aside from the tragedies of their losses, and the pain inflicted on their families and loved ones.)
Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York City, and now two cops are killed. In revenge? Retaliation?
Slogans and t-shirts abound. "Black Lives Matter" "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" "I Can't Breathe" "Breathe Easy, Don't Break the Law" "I Can Breathe" "Hands Up, Don't Loot"
So many of these have an undertone of anger, hatred, and an unwillingness to see the other's point of view.
Someone got in trouble for saying "All Lives Matter", because the slogan is "Black Lives Matter", and changing it detracts from the main focus.
Yet all lives DO matter, it's just that we're particularly concerned about black lives at this moment.
I don't really know what I could say that would be little more than hot air. Something said to show I've picked my side, something anyone on the other side will automatically dismiss.
I imagine how someone whose mind is already made up would tune me out the minute I start to say something they can peg into a slot.
Oh, here's the argument that _____. That people who aren't breaking the law have nothing to fear. Or that black people feel particularly abused by the police, and have reasons to be less trusting.
They've heard it all, and dismissed it already. What really matters, to them, is that the dead men committed crimes. Or that the police were protected by a system that didn't even seriously investigate the incident.
And now, with this cop-killing, it makes it even worse. (Aside from the tragedies of their losses, and the pain inflicted on their families and loved ones.)
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