It's sad, what's happening in STL, MO, USA

[IAmFCA]

This is a free writing. Maybe a rant. I dont know.

 

I just stopped for a minute between morning drop off and work intensity. I am surprised that I had a moment of almost tears.

 

I listen to discussion of the shooting. As long as the response is focused on the crime without paying attention to the context, we are missing the forest for the trees. We have people who feel systematically dismissed. Rightly or wrongly, there can be no trust if one side of the conversation doesn't think it is heard.

 

We have been here before. Regrettably, in history explicit and/or systemic racism contributed to the problem. What have we learned? As the powerful, we focus on the crime. As the powerless, we disengage. The state's attorney has sometimes run without challenge. Voter turnout is low. "Why vote, nobody cares?" Because if we don't vote, then we aren't talking.

 

And the media. "Whites" v. "Blacks" doesn't accurately represent the issue, and enflames the divides that do exist.

 

God helps those who help themselves. That is true for people too. When we complain, but we accept petty crime, we give up, we don't vote, we let it be... then when we complain, we are dismissed.

 

It doesn't make injustice right. It does make it harder to have one's voice respected.

 

I am sad that there are people, friends of mine, who do not understand what it means to be poor, to have available only the worst of the public school system, to be stopped by police on random, to have to take several buses each way to a job, to live where chaos is around you. Everything is harder, everything, because risks are everywhere.

 

I love my city, I love my country. Sometimes we can be so narrow mind3d, retreating in anger to our corners pointing fingers at each other. Come on, people. How does that help? Think. These are people, flawed, overwhelmed, scared.

 

Does nobody see the bigger picture? Does nobody hurt for communities that have so much collective anger as to erupt in self-set flames?

 

It's a sad episode.

[IAmFCA]

Here is where I come out:

 

Live every day in search for understanding. This is an act of faith or an act of courage, perhaps. It is also a vital act of community. Live every day for understanding, as a manager, a neighbor, an employee, a parent, a child, a citizen, a customer, a vendor.

 

Sew a human safety net of everyone we meet.

[HeartGoesOn]

Political...Please review the posting guidelines.

 

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