A harsh lesson from the U.S.

We’re not perfect.

Far from it. There’s racism in Canada — and, don’t even bother to try denying it, a considerable amount in the Atlantic provinces as well. There are serious levels of inequality and, yes, though some might deny it, even clear instances of police abusing their powers. But to the south of us, the United States seems more and more intent on tearing itself apart. A country with 4.25 per cent of the world’s population now has more than 28 per cent of the world’s COVID-19 deaths, and the number climbs every day. More than 106,000 Americans have died of the virus and experts fear that many COVID-19 deaths are not being included in that total due to incomplete testing. Even with a pandemic raging, the national government, after failing to act at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, is now pushing for the country to open up. On top of that, protests over the treatment of George Floyd — a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck after arresting him — are sweeping across the country. Some have turned violent and garnered much media attention, and the sheer number of protests — in more than 100 U.S. cities — is evidence of much more far-reaching concerns than the actions of one police officer in one city. Meanwhile, there’s a U.S. president who tweets ever-more-frantic-sounding all-caps messages from inside a darkened White House — messages that have themselves included calls for violence. All of it makes what would have been a far-fetched idea a decade ago — that a great North American power could stumble as a result of its internal conflicts — seem suddenly and frighteningly possible. There was a time when the United States was intent on showing the world the way — now, it looks like it is showing us what a wrong turn might look like. That may change, but it sure doesn’t look that way right now. For this close neighbour, it looks frightening. There have been protests in Canada as well, as the Floyd case and others open old wounds that have never been properly treated or resolved. There are better ways. Not easy ways, not obvious ways, and certainly not as simple as papering over problems with a few political words. Let’s look for them and let’s find them. Let’s not descend into hardened positions of left and right, with no middle ground for discussion and no safe space for finding solutions to obvious problems. Let’s open up the lines of communication and keep them open. If the decline of a great nation can do nothing else for us, it can at least show us some obvious mistakes to avoid. We don’t have to make the same mistakes to learn from them.