Hey Tony,
I haven’t written in awhile because I have been at a loss of words for current events. As a white, straight man from a fairly affluent family, I find it really difficult to write about the Black Lives Matter movement and racism in general.
So what started with professional athletes kneeling for the the Pledge of Allegiance has spread to a widespread protest movement that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. In hind site, it would have been smart to address this back then. By choosing not to, we chose to deal with it at the most inopportune time, which it turns out is in the middle of a global pandemic, when a tear wrenching video of an arrest gone wrong enrages everyone in the country to what it seems is a breaking point and then invariably another video comes out and another and another…
Whether you agree with them or not, the people protesting believe their lives and the lives of the people they care about are in danger if they aren’t successful in accomplishing some sort of real systematic change. And whether you agree with them or not, some people seem to feel threatened by the protestors and believe their lives and the lives of the people they care about are in danger if they are successful. There has been some positive change enacted on a local level but the leadership coming out of DC has been minimal. Not much has changed since you left, so as you can imagine some of the leaders in DC are actually making matters far worse. Plus it is the height of election season… so yeah.. sometimes I totally get why you left. God damn it, you are missed.
