EDITORIAL/Listen to the anguish

EDITORIAL/Listen to the anguish

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There is a moral imperative to bring the race discussion to the top in earnest especially among conservatives, to listen to the pleas of those peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd and to pledge to erase the vestiges of racism that only people of color can truly understand.

As Aaron Rice, director of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a conservative think tank, pointed out so succinctly:

• You can believe that America is the shining city on the hill, while recognizing that we are still working to live up to our ideals.




• You can believe that the American story is largely one of triumph and perseverance, while recognizing that there are very dark and violent chapters in that story, and in the entire story of humanity.

• You can believe that God has blessed our country in countless ways, while recognizing that we are all sinners and will never be fully perfected on this side of Heaven.

• You can believe that individual liberty and personal responsibility have offered hope, dignity, and opportunity for countless Americans, while recognizing that many Americans are still faced with a myriad of struggles, both large and small, due only to the color of their skin.

• You can believe in law and order, while recognizing that within living memory, our very laws were explicitly used to disenfranchise blacks, and that the effects of that state-sanctioned oppression will not disappear overnight.

• You can be proud of your accomplishments and the long hours, sweat equity, grit, determination, discipline, and perseverance that got you to where you are, while recognizing that others face challenges that would never even occur to you.

• You can believe that police officers have a very hard job, that they are overwhelmingly good people, and that they protect and serve Americans. You can also recognize that they are entrusted with life and death decisions over others, that they are humans who can interpret the perceived social power of others, that this interpretation can be consciously or unconsciously informed by historical injustices and racist cultural norms and behaviors, that this process too often has deadly consequences for innocent people of color, and that this is an affront to God, in whose image all people were made.

• You can support law enforcement, while understanding that many things have naturally contributed to an extraordinary fear and distrust of law enforcement in many poor and minority communities, and that you may never be able to fully relate to or understand how those people feel.

• You can be angered by the violence and destruction happening this week, while not losing sight of the need and opportunity to focus on the injustices that have been building for generations upon generations.

We believe it's time for conservatives to have an honest conversation about racism, both within the context of police violence and independent of it, but mostly starting with personal relationships. Get to know someone who is not like you.

The best thing anyone who is eager can do is get to know a person of another color. Go to lunch or dinner, invite a person who is not like you to your home, get to know their kids, their hopes, their sorrows, and especially their struggles — red, yellow, black, white, brown.

George Floyd was part of inner-city Christian ministries in Houston and Minneapolis. He's said to have left a strong Gospel witness in Houston and positively impacted thousands of young lives.

This particular murder at this already particularly troubling time can serve as a catalyst for the race conversation.

To be sure, there will be resistance from the left to any discussion, as we can plainly see their resistance to law and order in the rioting and their failure to stop insurrections in American cities we love.

We can begin the conversations in our homes, dorm rooms, the workplace and places of worship not talking at each other as we so often do on social media but with each other.

You see, it's perfectly fine for Joe Biden to go to a church. That's called listening to the anguish. But let President Trump walk to a historic church the anarchists tried to burn and take a stand for law and order and that's a "photo op."

Democrats are making excuses for the insurrection and showing defacto support for the ANTIFA mobs.

Liberals will want to start with commissions, inspectors, certifications, continue their fallacy that an overwhelming presence of­ police is "provocative" and "escalatory" and finally re-education, but racism is a matter of the heart and listening must begin among individuals with proper pressure applied to government by the people.

Conservatives, especially, have a grand opportunity, a moral obligation to listen to the anguish and to pledge to help end the vestiges of racism once and for all in order to heal our land for all to prosper.






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