August 2016 Articles

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Fighting through the Pain

Fighting through the Pain
July, 2016, has shocked the American people with tragedy after tragedy, and did so again just last week in Baton Rouge. On Sunday, July 17th, a deranged shooter fired on police in the Louisiana capital, killing three and wounding three others. Like so many previous attacks in this country, this one fit a pattern: perpetrated by a hateful and heavily-armed bigot, it seemed designed to incite racial violence and to sow division among our people.
On July 7th – merely two weeks before – another madman had tried this same sinister tactic, firing on Dallas police officers tasked with guarding a peaceful protest by Black Lives Matter. This assault, resulting in five dead, eleven wounded, galvanized a nation already grieving the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two African-American men killed during their interactions with police. Chief David O. Brown of the Dallas police force put it best: “We’re hurting,” he said in a candid moment of helplessness and grief, and his words could have applied equally to all Americans, both black and white. Of course, Chief Brown may have also had a private reason for his pain: in 2010, just weeks after becoming the head of the Dallas police, his son had shot and murdered a police officer and then been killed in a confrontation with the cops. “My family has lost not only a son, but a fellow police officer and a private citizen lost their lives at the hands of our son,” said Chief Brown in a statement released at the time. “That hurts so deeply I cannot adequately express the sadness I feel inside my heart.” What are we to do today about these horrific acts of violence, these evil expressions of pain and of anger? Certainly no politician alone nor police force nor protest movement can prevent every single murder; that is utter fantasy, peddled by people on both the left and the right who should know better. Instead, Americans must examine their hearts, and, as my sister, Dana, wrote in last month’s Ag Trader USA, we must continually ask ourselves – and each other – “Where is the love?” If we ask ourselves this question, and we struggle to empathize with and understand one another – no matter how much we may disagree – we all have a better chance of holding this nation together. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” and this statement, true 150 years ago, remains true today and prescient as ever. In short, we should not doubt nor question each other’s motives, nor fall prey to anger and desperation. Can we mourn this tragic month and its senseless violence while simultaneously acknowledging that crime rates have fallen in the last twenty years? Can we stand by the police, stating unequivocally that Blue Lives do Matter, insisting on law and order, while also holding our officers accountable for mistakes and respecting citizens’ right to peaceful protest? Can we critique each other respectfully, encouraging debate and disagreement, without at the same time questioning the patriotism and the basic decency of our fellow Americans? I believe we can do all of this – and I believe we must – because if we do not, we will have proven the Founding Fathers wrong, that the American people cannot actually be trusted with self-government, that we are indeed slaves to hatred and division. To quote Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” And so, today, let us all keep in our minds Chief Brown and his inspiring example of fighting through the pain, of public service in the face of anger, division, and distrust, and let’s attempt in our own lives to push aside the fears and to strive for goodness and for unity in all that we do. Cody Bennett