A rift in blue ©Lauren Helf
June 6, 2020
Walls of Silence Could Crack
For the first time in a turbulent four years, the country is boiling with pain. Out of George Floyd's tragedy a dam
has finally broken and pent-up outrage spills onto the streets. Whites march with Blacks, and a largely inert
population has been stirred. Charges are being brought against the culprits and laws protecting police secrecy might now be repealed.
Criticism of the president's undemocratic assault on demonstrators has issued from ex-military leaders, while
a few timid trickles of dissent emerge from the craven GOP.
Black Lives Matter is a salvo against America's original sin. Police violence is just one of the obstacles to justice.
If this country is to be set aright, white supremacy has to end. It has to end regardless of who sits in the White House.
But it's fitting that the president who launched his contemptible rule bemoaning a fictional "American carnage" and touting
a "beautiful wall" is now hiding behind newly-erected barriers while the American people flood the streets to protest
peacefully against the real carnage.
