Narratives about racial issues are readily seen from just about any direction. Scenes from hundreds of locations are displayed on TV, some emphasizing the destruction and others exhibiting people (white + brown + black) at peace. What you conclude depends on which view (with comments supplied) you choose. An earlier blog is my attempt to steer away from either extreme. Both extremes make use of some true information, but selecting only what supports one side. That effect can be as misleading as outright lying.
The statement “without truth we have nothing” can be strengthened by addition: Enlightenment requires truth, yes, but half-truth doesn’t get us there. Also it includes wisdom plus understanding plus a desire for peace. Those ideas lead toward areas (religion, spirituality) where I’m not qualified to preach — so let me just note that we can not afford to
* deny injustice; our country is loaded with incontestable evidence of that
nor
* destroy all to restart from zero; we don’t have unlimited time to reinvent everything.
Extremism in any form, right or left, will fail; that’s no consolation though because, before failure occurs, innocent lives are shattered. The damage can be minimized only by a prompt move toward center. Compromise, an indispensable precondition for any solution, can begin with a fact so obvious that denying it instantly reveals an unreasonable position. Here’s one: Actions committed by a small fraction don’t condemn all. Here’s how that fact applies to —
* the left: Yes of course black lives matter. That’s not the same as saying that all police are murderers.
* the right: Yes of course destruction and looting are wrong. That’s not the same as saying that all protesters are doing it.
That’s not very profound. It wasn’t intended to be. It’s offered as one little step toward a conversation that needs to be broadened. There’s reason to believe enough Americans are ready to have that conversation. We must move toward the center because the alternative is disaster. America’s enemies (external, finding ways to agitate; internal, planning to provoke a bloodbath leading to civil war) love to divide us. Their potent weapon is spread of false information, enabling a few on either side to sway a multitude. DON’T — repeat, DON’T — let them succeed. Regret from that would last a lifetime and far beyond.
