It’s hard to make distinctions, but we should

Some, particularly in the political arena, claim that the situation today is that you either favor Black Lives Matter or you support “law and order.” I suggest that is a false dichotomy, a sort of social borderline personality where it is all black or all white, if will pardon the pun.

Let’s deconstruct all of this.

What does BLM mean to those who support it? It means that those who are black, or actually other minorities whose skin color makes them readily identifiable, have not been treated the same by law enforcement as other citizens. (When is the last time you saw a white citizen on the ground, handcuffed behind the back with a police officer’s knee on his neck as he softly screeches that he can’t breathe?) A better explanation than mine is that of a neighbor of mine who made a hand-written sign and displayed it on their property: “black lives matter, too.” In other words, treat me the same as other citizens.

Lets turn now to the idea that to support BLM you do not support law and order which protects blacks as well as whites. What has happened in some BLM demonstrations is that there has been wanton destruction of property and, even worse, looting. Why has that happened? Maybe it is a moment of animal exuberance generated by the passion of the moment. Does that make it right? Absolutely not and those who committed such acts should be prosecuted. But before one attacks this possible explanation of why illegal acts occur, harken back to last week when the LA Lakers won the NBA title and fans gathered at a central location and many stores were

wantonly destroyed. This happens with World Series or Super Bowl victories all too often. Some people just make bad judgments while doing appropriate activity but they still should be held accountable.

But there are other potential explanations for why people while engaged in lawful demonstrations do bad things: people are not all good or all bad and some of the BLM demonstrators can also be people with real mean streaks in their personalities and so they do mean things. Another explanation could be what are called ‘fellow travelers’----people that grab every opportunity to advance another agenda – and Antifa may be such a thing. In either of these cases, the perpetrators of property destruction should be punished.

However, none of that is a reason to discredit the BLM movement.

In fact, some of the violence within lawful petitions to the government to redress grievances has come from those who can cause tear gas or other irritants to be visited on clearly peaceful demonstrators in front of the very heart of our national government so that their own ‘peaceful’ demonstra

tion can occur.

Other concepts float around about such silly things as defunding police or that all police officers are racists, but every good also comes with some bad and some ugly. Defunding police or branding all cops as evil is not hardly rational, and not a good or valid idea. We all, as citizens, need to separate the good, the bad and the ugly even though some passionate zealots cannot do so.

All of this being said, why is it that some want to fuse the good of BLM with the bad of lawlessness?

As Americans, we can make distinctions about the good, the bad and the ugly. I know it’s hard.

Let’s do it.

WALLY BRAUER Yuma