Matters of life and death
A nation already deeply divided by race and politics is now divided more deeply by race, murder and retribution.
Videos show police officers killing black suspects. Videos show the carnage as a black sniper kills police officers in revenge.
We line up: Black Lives Matter. Blue Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. To invoke one or the other is to provoke one of the other.
There was an election year not so long ago when it felt like racism, hate and violence would tear our country apart. But we had a leader then who found a way to speak to all of us. He said:
“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black…you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization–black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
“Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love….
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black….
“We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we’ve had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
“But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
“Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
“Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
That was Senator Robert F. Kennedy speaking to a black audience in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 4, 1968, the night Martin Luther King was shot and killed. Two months later, Kennedy was shot and killed.
Matters of life and death
A nation already deeply divided by race and politics is now divided more deeply by race, murder and retribution.
Videos show police officers killing black suspects. Videos show the carnage as a black sniper kills police officers in revenge.
We line up: Black Lives Matter. Blue Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. To invoke one or the other is to provoke one of the other.
There was an election year not so long ago when it felt like racism, hate and violence would tear our country apart. But we had a leader then who found a way to speak to all of us. He said:
“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black…you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization–black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
“Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love….
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black….
“We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we’ve had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
“But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
“Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
“Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
That was Senator Robert F. Kennedy speaking to a black audience in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 4, 1968, the night Martin Luther King was shot and killed. Two months later, Kennedy was shot and killed.