The Memorial in Dallas

The thing we all know is that we are mortal, but some know it in the intimate way of knowing--that life is not only precious and fleeting, but can be stolen. The survivors of loved ones whose lives were taken by another share a knowledge that it should not be this way. How does taking any life enhance that of another? The memorial in Dallas for the five fallen officers whose lives were stolen are a remembrance of their lives, but also a discussion of the context for these deaths, and the deaths of the people who brought about the protest at which their lives were taken.

It's contentious, certainly.  Partisans will have their say, and that's not unexpected. But I don't care what partisans have to say on the subject. We are all, ultimately, mortal, and the time we have here to experience the one life we have is precious.

It is too precious to stay in hater mode. Too precious to waste. If any speech today pissed you off, be more pissed at the reality that, so what? You are going to die. And you aren't the only one. But you don't need to be an actuary to know all deaths aren't so equal, and that some are on society. How we do what we do to other people.

And what was said about the job cops face--that they are not so much a thin, blue line as a thin, blue bandage we place on a society that is bleeding out because the rest of us don't pick up the slack? True. Very true. And true also that not all the decisions they have to make are fair or without racial bias.  And true that it's human to mourn the police slain, and those slain by the police. These understandings aren't exclusive of one another.

I don't know how any of that is problematic, but here we are. Here we are.