Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

Many of our cities are ablaze and most citizens in our country are heartbroken over the events of the past few weeks. Racism is alive and well nearly three generations after the Supreme Court struck down the “separate-but-equal” standards as evidenced by the murder of an innocent black jogger by two white men in Atlanta, the police killing an innocent black woman in her own apartment in Louisville; a white woman in NYC’s Central Park threatening to call the police and tell them she is being physically intimidated by “an African American male”; and finally and most alarmingly the cold-blooded killing of a black man by white police in Minneapolis.

I am feeling the same sense of anger, grief and helplessness that I felt in the sixties when riots broke out after the assassinations of fierce advocates for racial and economic justice followed by riots at the Democrat convention. I am doubly angered, grieved and bereft by the response of our President, who seems to think that the best way to push back against protests of police brutality is to double down on the brutality.  In times of turmoil, we shouldn’t be adding to the turmoil. We should be seeking out peacekeepers. We should be heeding the words of Fred Rogers

The helpers are everywhere. Somewhere in Chicago there is a protege of Barak Obama’s working as a community organizer. Somewhere in Atlanta there is a minister who reveres Martin Luther King Junior. Somewhere in every community where there is discord over race there are groups of individuals who want to bridge the divide. Helpers are everywhere. We need to seek them out, honor them, and honor their work NOW.