We sure know how to blow things up in the United States of America. Since July 4, this country has exploded in the pain of gun violence. We celebrate our nation's experiment in democracy, and then the challenges of democracy and diversity are on full display as bullets pierce bodies for reasons only madmen could accept.
It is a time when questioning authority is considered "unpatriotic". It is a time when you cannot state your desire for examinations of possible police brutality without being accused of being a "cop hater". It is a time you can't put your full empathy behind the victims of a mass execution of police officers, without appearing insensitive of the occasions born out by evidence that a minority of police use excessive force in a discriminatory way.
Instead, we scream at each other in capital letters on social media sites. We watch the news that tells us what we want to hear, instead of what we need to hear. We look for simple answers to unbelievably complex problems. We refuse to accept that there are multiple factors and multiple truths. We insist the "other" is to blame.
Buddhist thought often delves into the idea of duality, that two seemingly opposing concepts can actually exist simultaneously. Dark does not exist without its opposite, light. That both dark and light are part of the same event. If there is no good, can there be bad? Good helps us know bad, and visa-verse. Police can be honorable and helpful, and some can cause harm. We can ask for justice for their victims and support them, all at the same time.
A healthy mind can tolerate dualities. A healthy mind doesn't engage in tunnel vision or in perceiving only one side of a situation. Unhealthy minds tend toward absolutes: right/wrong; good/bad; always/never. Unhealthy minds are unable to tolerate questions and evidence to the contrary, insisting on ignoring the latter in a misguided effort to be "right."
Any attempt to ignore the multiple factors that are true--sometimes there is excessive use of force and sometimes police are unfairly targeted--only leads to the death of this great democracy, built on complex discussions and debates and negotiations. Built on the idea that our collective unity is more important than our plethora of individual needs. Built with the understanding that it is our collective responsibility to find justice for all. Built with the knowledge that democracy is hard work and it isn't afraid to look at different ideas and opinions.
It's been a hot summer, so far, filled with hot heads and finger pointing. In that, we all get hurt and justice is not done.
Lastly, let us all note that this violence was produced by guns. The delusion that guns unequivocally keep us safe is killing us.
Some pieces I found resonant at this time: this, from a mom in Utah; this from a New York City policeman; this regarding the President; our past President's eulogy in Dallas: and this from one of the slain Baton Rouge officers.
And, because music can sometimes cut through when all else fails, there is this.
