Dallas is a city determined to heal
Obama lauds police officers, holds up wounded but resilient community as an example for the entire country to follow
Hug by hug, handshake by handshake, good deed followed by good deed, Dallas is putting the terror of last week behind it, looking toward what everyone hopes is a brighter, better future.
Although people talk of having the breath knocked out of them, having their souls pierced by evil, there’s a palpable sense: This. Will. Not. Stand.
Gut-punched and pierced, Dallas stands back up.
The words of Mayor Mike Rawlings capture the hit the city took — and how it will handle the future: “We may weep, but we will never whine,” he said.
“To a person, the citizens of Dallas are hopeful,” Councilman Adam McGough said Tuesday. “We are responding with interfaith prayer. We are lining streets with American flags. Protesters and counterprotesters are coming together in the name of peace. We want to be the end of the violence and the beginning of positive change. We want to be #DallasStrong for our own broth-
“These men, this (police) department, this is the America I know. ... I see what is possible when we recognize we are one American family.”
President Obama
ers and sisters, but also for our state and this country.”
President Obama was in town Tuesday for a memorial service honoring the five police officers gunned down Thursday by a sniper at a march protesting the killing of black men by police.
He said Dallas is the model of what America can be. It’s a city with problems but a city with committed leaders and police officers and community members who want to learn from their mistakes and move ahead.
“These men, this department, this is the America I know,” Obama said. “In this audience, I see what is possible when we recognize we are one American family.”
Talking to cops around the city, you’d be excused for not realizing that less than a year ago, many of them wanted Chief David Brown fired. They were upset about low morale, low pay and a spike in violence. At Tuesday’s service, Brown received the loudest cheers from many of those same officers, who were addressed not just by their mayor and Obama but also former president George W. Bush, who is much loved here.
Like others, Bush urged Dallas to not let sadness and anger turn to bitterness.
“But Americans, I think, have a great advantage. To renew our unity, we only need to remember our values,” he said. “We have never been held together by blood or background. We are bound by things of the spirit, by shared commitments to common ideals. At our best, we practice empathy, imagining ourselves in the lives and circumstances of others. This is the bridge across our nation’s deepest divisions.”
In Dallas, people are doing their best to erase those divisions, from the homeless men who insist a photographer document their prayer for the fallen officers to the neighbors who bought pizza for the cops guarding the spot where their brothers were gunned down.
Blue ribbons flutter from trees and parking meters, and job applicants have flooded the police department. Even a man waving an American flag and antagonizing a Black Lives Matter protest this weekend ended up hugging it out with the protesters he had been dogging.
“Cities cannot wait until there is a crisis to establish the difficult relationships,” McGough said. “We accept the challenge to help provide an example of how different, struggling people can ask for and give forgiveness. And we will listen to each other on a personal level to help mend wounded relationships and make this city the shining light that it is.”
Robert Goad lives near the shooting site, and he rejects the idea that Dallas is anything but committed to the future. “One random and crazed individual will not take away from the diverse and vibrant community we have built,” he said.