Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the Black Lives Matter movement.  In many ways, I get it.  I am hearing stories from people I know about treatment received from police offices and I am grieved.  I am not entirely shocked, however.  My son-in -law was once arrested in Burbank for driving a "stolen" car. Mine.  It was NOT stolen, it had not been reported stolen and they ran the plates because "he looked the kind" and saw it belonged to a white woman.  Did they let him call me?  No.  They FINALLY let him call me after the arresting detective went home for the weekend.  He was stuck there for the weekend and I had to PAY to get my car out.  They released him on Monday morning.  He said after I talked to the officer in charge of the jail they treated him very well.  I wish I had known how to get him out, they said there was nothing I could do until Monday.  I think his crime was "driving while Hispanic."  Although I know that MOST cops aren't like this, the ones that I have encountered who will lie to you or treat you like a suspect for no good reason leave a bad taste in my mouth.  I had a detective look me in the face and lie to me.  I will never forgive him or forget the fact that I trusted him to be an honest man.  He broke that trust.

I think the Black Lives Matter movement began as a way to really shed light on what goes on in Law enforcement.  As with any movement, the extreme element will attach itself and become prevalent before it stabilizes.  They are using a lot of the passive resistance techniques from the 1960's Civil Rights and Anti War movements.  There are a lot of changes that need to happen, and they will not happen overnight, but a dialog must begin.   I saw the statistic about the Dallas Police force, how after firing a number of officers and  changing training methods, the incidents of  "police brutality" dropped sharply.  There is a good place to start.   I heard a discussion on NPR that concluded that it is the training methods that need to be addressed.  I saw a meme that said we have to train the public, but seriously, if you are in charge, it is YOUR actions that determine the outcome.

I read a very long article from a white woman who said, in effect, if you are white you are a racist no matter what you do.  WHAT?  Her assertion is that we can never know what it means to be Black in this country, therefore we will always be racist.  This woman took a lot of classes and joined interracial discussion groups, like taking therapy to change herself.  Well, whatever helps you sleep at night.  Of COURSE I don't know what it's like to be Black in America, just like I don't know what it's like to be a pirate in the 1600's   DUH.  But I can listen to those who are and work with them to cause change. We must work together to solve the problems of this country,.

I do not expect to see a total change in my lifetime.  As a friend pointed out, you can't erase 400 years of behavior overnight. But as every journey begins with a single step, every movement toward change begins with a single action.   I found myself thinking of the Christmas Hymn I learned as a child "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me" .  Let us all look at ourselves and our actions and begin change.