Newsmax article-May 30, 2020

Sometimes the adults in the room need to speak up, regardless of the difficulty. It is well past time for an honest and candid discussion regarding the sensationalizing of deaths and the resulting violent aftermath in America.

The death of George Floyd has outraged almost everyone in America. This includes many who the Democrats and media would accuse of “dog whistling” their support. They tried to insinuate, or outright blame Republicans and Conservatives of supporting or condoning the terrible event. If they stated facts instead of conjecture, they would have stated that President Trump condemned it, Rush Limbaugh condemned it, Sean Hannity condemned it, Tucker Carlson condemned it, and so on. The rush to politicize every event, in the hope of garnering more votes, is appalling.

As a white American, I was shocked and saddened by this event. Every white person that I have interacted with, in person or on social media, since seeing this video was just as shocked and angry. I have not heard one white person even attempt to justify it. I am sure there are some hardcore white supremacists somewhere who have not one iota of concern, but that is what makes them evil. I think we can all agree that racist acts are evil acts, but not all evil acts are racist.

Racism is defined as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”. It is important to understand that there is no skin color mentioned anywhere in that statement. White skinned people can be racist, but so can black skinned, brown skinned and any person of other color skin. There is no exclusive for white Americans to be racist. It can also be practiced by any occupation or station in life. To be racist is a choice, and it is an evil choice, like theft, rape, murder or any other similar crime against our fellow man.

What our society must understand is that we are all independent in our choices.

When one man rapes a woman, that does not make all men rapists. When one woman sells drugs, that does not make all women drug dealers. The same holds true for one white police officer that may kill a black man. That does not make all white men or police either racists or murderers.

Some cops will be bad. Some civilians will be bad.

Some white people will be racist. Some black people will be racist.

Some media will lie. Some politicians will lie.

Some people will riot. Some people will commit murder.

If we do not as a society, agree that all these things are wrong, our country will get worse. The commission of one of these actions does not justify another.  Murder by one does not allow for murder of another. It also does not allow of any other act of evil, like rioting or assault. That is revenge, and revenge is also evil.

Justice is good. Justice is what we must seek. Justice is also not rushed. Justice must be thorough and transparent. “Swift justice” is neither of those things.

Letting American cities burn, innocents get attacked and killed, and stores get looted will merely encourage the next event to be even worse. Knowing that there are no repercussions is the best incentive for evil acts to flourish.

As Edmund Burke famously stated, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”