L.A. Parker: Waiting for a day when all lives matter
Dave found a nearby seat and started our irregular morning conversation with an observation.
“Philadelphia dodged a bullet last night. Six police officers shot and all of them survived,” Dave offered.
Commiseration preceded a personal contention that in the couple of years we have shared earlymorning opinions and discussions inside Trenton Transit Center, Dave had never mentioned any murders of regular folk in Killadelphia, particularly a June shooting where six people were shot, one fatally, during a high school graduation celebration.
My high horse perch noted that the media and other thought benders prone to mind manipulation, had convinced almost everyone that police lives hold higher rank than residents. Police officers killed in the line of duty somehow register as more unfortunate than any regular Joe murdered by an assailant.
This stark discrepancy continues along ethnic and social parameters as U.S. manipulations place non-Caucasians and people on lower financial rungs as a cultivation of inferiority. So, our nation responds differently to perceived crises within ethnic and socioeconomic situations. A U.S. crack epidemic which produced death and violence in urban areas gained a much more harsh and judgmental response than the nation’s opioid crisis which mushroomed in suburban America as political powers and police sought compassionate efforts to end death and destruction.
This war on drugs in urban America opposite the delicate compassionate care agenda for suburban children, teens and other drug users, underscored a nation unfamiliar with the ravages of drug addiction. Addicts in both suburban and urban neighborhoods perform almost any desperate act to feed their passion. Period.
Violence against police or other persons produces similar post traumatic stress disorders as victims, family members and friends deal with the residue of bullet holes, fear and blood loss.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney offered these comments about the graduation shooting.
“I’ve been to many graduation parties. I’ve never thought about bringing a gun to a graduation party,” Kenney told reporters. “I don’t frankly have the answer to changing that mindset, other than continuing to invest in the things we invest in to make people’s lives better to make them make choices that aren’t horrible choices to make.”
Kenney delivered these perspectives following the shooting of six Philly police officers.
“Whether it’s our six officers who were shot or it’s some 16-, 17-, 20-year-old kid on the streets of Philadelphia who gets shot with guns that shouldn’t be in people’s hands,” he said. “It’s aggravating. It’s saddening. And it’s something that we need to do something about.”
Kenney’s approach for both incidents must be our moral standard, a recognition that shooting victims whether dressed in police blues or blue jeans, deserve similar reactions.
Dave suggested that shootings of police represent a deterioration of society. Perhaps but one must recognize that murder in nearly every venue suggests a step away from normal although victims in U.S. cities receive different responses than shooting victims in the suburbs.
A personal mental gymnastic envisions how citizens reacted to the first murder in Trenton, Princeton or Hamilton. Currently, death via homicide in the capital city seems more expected than in nearby suburban towns.
Interestingly, society performs better when people care about each other whether those people live engaged in the struggles of poverty, homelessness, violence, health challenges and the uncertainty of circumstances or enjoy the better crust of life.
Building a better mousetrap may attract people to your door but the construction of great communities requires indiscriminate compassion.
Life is life. Violence is violence. Pray for the day when all lives have equal value.