I gave a sigh of relief at the news of the verdict in the trial of policeman Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd. Remember that this is the case that elevated the Black Lives Matter movement into the mainstream of discourse (and managed to do that in the middle of a pandemic).
But don’t take the verdict as a sign that the fight is over. We are daily reminded that there is a big problem to be solved, and that problem is systemic racism. It is not going to be easy to fix, but we have to do it, or at least do our best to try. Because there are still people (like Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson) who are still fighting for racism.
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Carlson, calling this an attack on civilization, when just weeks ago he was defending a mob that swarmed the US Capitol, is just nuts.
A woman who escaped Czechoslovakia in 1985 thanked me for having an “animated discussion” with my fellow morning coffee group because “if you don’t confront them with the truth, they will never examine their alternate reality.”
I do wish you hadn’t added the “or at least do our best to try” comment. This is one we cannot drop. The fight needs to continue as long as the problem remains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heman_Humphrey Heman Humphrey is my three times great. His grandfather died in the revolutionary war. His Uncle Owen is father to John Brown who invaded Harper’s Ferry. Heman Humphrey admitted a “man of color” to Amherst. The internet no longer has that nor what became of the man of color. My mother never mentioned any of this to us. I learned from the internet. Still we learned that “all men were created equal.” My family has followed that all our lives.
On the other side Henry Wise was the first governor from the Eastern shore of Virginia. He had John Brown hung and was there at the time. He agreed with John Brown’s cause but not the treason. Henry Wise a slave owner and fighting for the south, said at the end of the war “At least we are free of the horrible custom of slave owning.” Those aren’t his word, but those were his meaning.