The protests

The protests coming out of the killing of George Floyd seemed aimed, as they should be, at unjust and discriminatory procedures in policing people of color. I’ve listened to and read considerable commentary on the protests and their goals.

One thing that has surprised me is how little the discussion goes beyond policing procedures. Maybe this is a big enough issue that it must be tackled specifically. But I see things as a web of interconnected concerns.

Lack of adequate low income housing, black-on-black crime, poverty that crosses all racial and ethnic boundaries, lack of political will to tackle these problems and violence in the home and in the street and guns everywhere are all concerns.

These issues all have been with us for a long time. They are all tangled. It will take sustained work, the will of government and citizens and a good dose of the right kind of love for a long time after the protest energy has waned.