Reign of Terror Is on Relationships Between Friends and Family Members in Divisive Times

 Thoughts after reading a Facebook post from a friend decrying the "reign of terror" of destructive protests and the desire to take down monuments and statues. 

I’m sad today by the post on FB of a friend. I’m reminded that one of the most heartbreaking divisions in this country is now between friends and family members.  

Some see the burning of government buildings and the desire to bring down statues as the reign of terror. Those terrible actions serve to hijack legitimate complaints about the true reign of terror. The racism that is now more apparent due to cell phone footage. The terror that parents of African American children feel when their kids go out at night. The terror we try to quiet as we give them the “talk” time after time. 

I don’t care about the statues or monuments. Leave them up, but let’s honor our current heroes who protect us in their military service and protect us in the emergency rooms of this country. There is terror in the hearts of people on the streets due to evictions, due to the loss of jobs. Terror in the lines at the food bank. There is terror in dealing with a sick relative who would have been OK if the rights step had been taken months ago to acknowledge the virus as real and to care enough to address it.

There are fools and self-serving individuals in the streets and in the Whitehouse, who have hurt us all and divided us in ways we’ve never seen before. While 99 percent of the demonstrations and protests have been without fires and looting, those few have given fodder to those who would further divide us for their own purposes.

So, leave up all the statues There were very few even "good" people back then who saw and fought against the immorality of slavery. I’m heartened that right now I see an emerging of more good people who see the immorality of the huge inequalities in this country and are trying to make things better. Doctors, food bank staff, police, teachers, government leaders, philanthropists, moms and dads. They won’t get statues, but they deserve our recognition and appreciation and not let the few who are destructive in the streets or in government blind us to those heroes.

The burning of cars or garbage cans or buildings doesn’t help one damn bit. It just further divides and distracts us from the work that needs to be done. Sadly, it strains the ties of caring and affection among us that makes life in this wonderful country so precious and so worth working for.