The Dividing Line Isn't Between Rightists and Leftists, But "Cuts Through Every Heart."

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In the current crisis in the U.S., all sides are forgetting this keen ethical observation by the prisoner of conscience, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Various sides are claiming, self-righteously, that it is only their enemies who are wrong.
But actually, all of us humans to one degree or another are both good and bad.

"That means that when we oppose and criticize our enemies we ought to do so with an honest awareness of our own moral failings."Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love...Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, [or Black man or Brown man] but to win his friendship and understanding."
--Martin Luther King

A few Key Points:

#1 Free Speech is for everyone, even for those we think have evil views! It is truly scary that the counter-protesters--Black Lives Matter, etc.-- against the White Supremacists appeared to be seeking to deny the White Nationalists their right to assemble, protest, and speak.

#2 All of us need to more strongly than ever counter right wing (and left wing) racism, especially when overt racists act upon that racism and even murder others such as the horrific murderer of the young woman in the street.

#3 The Media needs to do a better job of objective reporting. Notice that in the coverage of the White Supremacist rally, nearly all media outlets identified the legal protest as that of White Supremacists, BUT failed to identify the “counter-protestors.”

Many of the latter were part of Black Lives Matter, a group which is anti-police, which claims that police in the U.S. systematically abuse, unfairly arrest, and attack Blacks.

This is mostly untrue. The vast majority of police officers serve and protect everyone. (I do know that a few police are racists, have heard it myself. But even they don’t treat Blacks wrongly when the latter are arrested during the commission of crimes.)

For instance, Black Lives Matter holds Michael Brown up as a hero, even though he was a criminal who committed a strong-armed robbery shortly before he was stopped by a police officer in Missouri!

Then Michael Brown, allegedly, attacked the police officer in his car. Yet Black Lives Matter, in an odd twist of reverse racism, claims that the police officer was guilty of racism!

#3 All political sides need to take a step back, meditate, learn to respond with empathy and humility toward their enemies.

The complex problems of the present (and the past and the future) aren’t solved by simplistic, political rhetoric and sloganeering.
ALL sides have both good and evil running right through their heart and mind.

#4 The removal of statues and monuments to past human leaders NEEDS TO STOP! We need to learn from the past, both the good and evil, not delete it from our public consciousness.

Nearly all of the first 12 Presidents of the U.S were racists, and many of them slave owners. Does that mean we need to take down the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Monument? Lincoln was a racist, so ought we to remove the Lincoln Memorial?

NO.

The past’s memorials, monuments, and statues ought to be used to teach, of how ALL human leaders’ actions are combinations of good and evil. Deleting their statues only worsens the already bad situation.

Those leftists who pulled down the statue to Confederate soldiers in North Carolina ought to be arrested for vandalism, trespassing, etc.
Not only did they do what is unlawful, it was immoral and unjust.

NO more memories from the past ought to be deleted from our public consciousness.

Napoleon committed many evil actions as did Oliver Cromwell, the Kings of England and France, the Roman Catholic Church, etc.
BUT
none of their statues ought to be removed.

Neither should any statues of leaders of the United States or the Confederacy be removed.

#5 The CENTRAL focus of current actions ought to be on grieving for the family of the murdered young woman, on seeking to counter the racism of many Americans including the overt horror of the White Nationalists.

We do best if we remember the emphasis of Martin Luther King, of how he emphasized we need to show benevolence toward our enemies, seek to help them escape from their evil views and actions.

#6 At legal protests, NO one ought to be allowed to carry weapons of any sort, certainly not guns.

#7 The police and National Guard ought to keep the opposing sides separate.


And, thanks to Starbucks of Camas, Washington and Hood River, Oregon while I am van-traveling. They made this brief post possible.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Black Riots Matter

Black Riots Matter: Milwaukee, St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Ferguson...

Milwaukee News:
“…two nights of riots sparked by the fatal shooting of a black man by a black police officer.”

“…some rioters torched businesses and police cars...pelted riot police with bottles and bricks...Eight officers were wounded, and dozens of people were arrested…”

(Photo: Calvin Mattheis / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

“Sylville Smith, 23, was killed on Saturday afternoon after he was stopped for acting suspiciously and then fled. Authorities said he was carrying an illegal handgun and refused orders to drop it when he was shot.”

"Peaceful demonstrations in the Sherman Park area where Smith died turned into violent protests on Saturday and Sunday nights."

"Shots were fired, and some rioters torched businesses and police cars. Angry crowds pelted riot police with bottles and bricks."
Brendan O'Brien, Curtis Skinner, Lisa Von Ahn

And a gas station was set on fire.

WHY?

To use the old cliché, the devil (immoral choices, criminal actions, dysfunction, distortion, disinformation, propaganda, falsehoods, lies, slander, invective, etc.) is in the details.

St. Paul:
“The police in St. Paul said at least five officers had been injured by fireworks, rocks, bricks and glass bottles that they said were thrown by protesters.”

Then there was Baton Rouge, Ferguson, etc.

But why didn't the family, friends, and other Blacks of the 9 Black church members ruthlessly slaughtered by Dylann Roof in Charleston, then take to the streets and riot, burn stores, throw bricks, etc.?

Let’s first hear from Black leaders themselves, opposites counter.


“This entire community has sat back and witnessed how Milwaukee, Wis., has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country...”

“Do we continue – continue with the inequities, the injustice, the unemployment, the under-education, that creates these byproducts that we see this evening?
"The black people of Milwaukee are tired. They’re tired of living under this oppression."
Khalif Rainey
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Newspaper

“#BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.

"We affirm our contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.”
Black Lives Matter

“BLM banner protesters in Minnesota chant, "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon.”

“An immediate end to the criminalization and dehumanization of Black youth across all areas of society including, but not limited to; our nation’s justice and education systems, social service agencies, and media and pop culture. This includes an end to zero-tolerance school policies and arrests of students, the removal of police from schools, and the reallocation of funds from police and punitive school discipline practices to restorative services.
An Immediate End to the Criminalization and Dehumanization of Black Youth Across All Areas of Society Including, but Not Limited to, Our Nation’s Justice and Education Systems, Social Service Agencies, Media, and Pop Culture”

“Across the country, Black children attend under-resourced schools where they are often pushed off of an academic track onto a track to prison. Zero-tolerance policies — a combination of exclusionary disciplinary policies and school-based arrests — are often the first stop along the school-to-prison pipeline and play a key role in pushing students out of the school system and funneling them into jails and prisons.”

“Each year more than three million students are suspended from school — often for vague and subjective infractions such as “willful defiance” and “disrespect” — amounting to countless hours of lost instructional time. As a result, Black students are denied an opportunity to learn and punished for routine child and adolescent behaviors that their white peers are often not disciplined for at all.
The Movement for Black Lives
https://policy.m4bl.org/end-war-on-black-people/

"It’s A Few Bad Apples Or Police Departments Or Maybe The Entire System"
by Georgia Sand
"Examples of this would include shooting unarmed people in the back, tasering children in the head, killing children, or beating pregnant women, among others."

"In those situations, police-worshippers fall back on, “It’s just a few bad apples.” Alas, cop-lovers who lazily fall back on this term forget the full idiom: “A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.”

"It would seem that in the face of entire departments all over the country demonstrating abject disregard for justice, Americans might become a little more open to the idea that it is less a problem of a “few bad apples” and more a problem of a rotten bunch."
Georgia Sand

VERSUS

Barbara Reynolds, Black activist and minister, author of 6 books and former editor for USA Today:
“I was a civil rights activist in the 1960s. But it’s hard for me to get behind Black Lives Matter."

I support BLM's cause, but not its approach.”

“Trained in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr., we were nonviolent activists who won hearts by conveying respectability and changed laws by delivering a message of love and unity.


"BLM seems intent on rejecting our proven methods...at protests today, it is difficult to distinguish legitimate activists from the mob actors who burn and loot."

"Now, the demonstrations are peppered with hate speech, profanity…”

“The power of the spiritual approach was evident recently in the way relatives of the nine victims in the Charleston church shooting responded at the bond hearing for Dylann Roof, the young white man who reportedly confessed to killing the church members “to start a race war.”

"One by one, the relatives stood in the courtroom, forgave the accused racist killer and prayed for mercy on his soul. As a result, in the wake of that horrific tragedy, not a single building was burned down. There was no riot or looting.”

“...we should remember the words of King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

"The civil rights movement was not exclusively a black movement for black people. It valued all human lives, even those of people who worked against us."

"I can’t believe that the life of a murdered white police officer, or an Asian child sold into sex slavery, or a hungry family in Appalachia are lives that don’t matter."

"...the movement overlooks black-on-black homicides, the leading cause of death for black males between the ages of 15 and 34."

"That horrific fact remains off the movement’s radar, for fear that it puts black men in a negative light. So which black lives really matter?”

When told by a Black activist that she ought to listen to new racial equality movement’s lead song, “Alright” by rapper Kendrik Lamar,
Reynolds wrote,
“I listened to the song, expecting it would be as uplifting as “We Shall Overcome.”
I was terribly disappointed.
The beat was too harsh; the lyrics were nasty and misogynistic."

Alright: “Let me tell you about my life / Painkillers only put me in the twilight / Where pretty pussy and Benjamin is the highlight.”
--

Johnathan Gentry, minister at West Angeles Church of God in Christ, said the BLM movement is “superficial, shallow."

The movement ought to be challenged: “Why are you not cleaning up your own community if black lives matter?”

"Where was Black Lives Matter in Chicago, in Baltimore and in Ferguson when 9-year-old Jamyla Bolden was shot to death in her own home?"

BLM wants to “protest for thugs,” but the organization is “nowhere to be found in their own communities.”

“Stop blaming slavery and segregation for what is happening now."

“It is you. It’s not them. It’s not this person. It is you standing in need of prayer.”

He pointed out that while BLM leaders are holding protest signs against police officers, Blacks have been “killing each other all year.”

“Either put the sign down, or reflect it towards your own community. You understand? Because that’s where we’re dying — in our own community.”


Black leader David A. Clarke, Sheriff of Milwaukee County
said on his twitter account:
“Four murdered, 9 shot in Milwaukee Fri night/Sat morning. Silence. 1 cop kills an ARMED black guy & riots break out?”

"And there is no racism in the hearts of police officers."

Another Black leader stated, "But the notion that America's cops simply are gunning down innocent black people is one of today's biggest and deadliest lies."

Even a pro-BLM leader, John McWhorter, associate professor at Columbia University,
self-described as “liberal Democrat” wrote that BLM ought to also seek to stop how the vast majority of Blacks killings happen, Blacks killing Blacks.

To be continued--



In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Finding Hope in the Midst of Tragedy and Evil

I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him.

Martin Luther King Jr.