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President Obama
President Obama Says ‘We Are Not As Divided As We Seem’ At Dallas Memorial For Slain Officers
From right to left: President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden attend Tribute to Dallas Fallen Officers at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center on July 12, 2016.
resident Barack
Obama, speaking in Dallas this afternoon to a com- munity — and a nation — reel- ing from last week's deadly sniper attack, said Americans must reject despair during these tough times.
"We turn on the TV or surf the internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners," he said at a multi-faith memorial at the Morton Meyerson Sym- phony Center.
"Politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this, and it's hard not to think sometimes that the center won't hold. And that things might get worse. I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But, Dallas, I'm here to say we must reject such despair."
President Obama, who cut short a trip to Europe to be at the memorial, continued, "I'm here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we've come against impossible odds. I know we'll make it because of what I've experienced in my own life. What I've seen of this country and its people, their goodness and decency, as president of the United States."
He said, "This is the Amer- ica I know," citing how pro- testers and police officers are mourning side by side, griev- ing for the five officers slain in Dallas as well as the two black men recently killed by police — Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota.
"In this audience I see what's possible," President Obama said. "I see what's possible when we recognize
that we are one American fam- ily. All deserving of equal treatment. All deserving equal respect. All children of God. That's the America I know."
He continued that often with memorials — having spo- ken at too many during his presidency and hugging "too many families" — the spirit for change falls to daily life, and words are inadequate.
"Because they're comfort- able," he said. "We're used to them. I've seen how inade- quate words can be in bringing about lasting change. I've seen how inadequate my own words have been."
He criticized the instinct to dismiss people's experiences and their pain over needing to instruct their children how to respond to police officers so they don't get shot.
"When all this takes place more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act? We cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protests as trouble- makers or paranoid," he said. "You can't simply dismiss it as a symptom of political correct- ness or reverse racism. To have your experience denied like that, dismissed by those in authority, dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and co-workers and fellow church members, again and again and again? It hurts. Surely, we can see that. All of us."
The president also criti- cized how much society asks police officers to do in the cur- rent system, echoing the re- marks earlier this week of Dallas Police Chief David Brown.
"So much of the tensions between police departments and minority communities that they serve is because we ask the police to do too much
and we ask too little of our- selves," he said. "As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employ- ment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs."
While President Obama took on the division and ten- sions of race in America, he called on unity in the country to address those issues.
"Because the vicious killer of these police officers — it won't be the last person who tries to make us turn on one another. The killer in Orlando wasn't. Nor was the killer in Charleston. We know there is evil in this world. That's why we need police departments," he said. "But as Americans, we can decide that people like this killer will ultimately fail. They will not drive us apart. We can decide to come together and make our country reflect the good inside us, the hopes and simple dreams we share."
President Obama began his remarks with scripture, re- turning to it throughout his re- marks. To President Obama's side, five chairs re- mained empty except for a folded American flag on each one as a tribute to the fallen of- ficers.
"Scripture tells us that in our sufferings, there is glory. Because we know that suffer- ing produces perseverance. Perseverance, character. And character, hope. Sometimes the truths of these words are hard to see," President Obama said. "Right now those words test us. Because the people of Dallas, people across the country are suffer- ing."
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Black Life Matters!
here is only one race: The Human Race. Therefore, a
fellow by the name of Terence made much sense when he said more than five centuries ago, “As I am human, all things human are common unto me.” But what happens when that basic truth gets lost in the double-speak of politics and in the conflict of violence?
As we watched a recent march by members of Black Lives Matter, in Downtown Tampa we would later connect that peaceful event with the compelling words of a popular come- dian, D. L. Hughley, who said, “To tell Black people how to speak and act is like telling a woman how to dress so she doesn’t get raped.”
We remembered, President Obama’s passionate words, “We are not as divided as we seem. . . we cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in protest as troublemakers.”
And we remember the emotional comments of Dallas Po- lice Chief David Brown when almost in tears, he concluded, “We ask police officers to do too much.”
Once more we’re reminded of the Sir Robert Peel, the founder of community policing who said, more than a cen- tury ago, “Police must maintain at all times, the tradition that police are the public and the public are the police: the police being hired to do professionally what the public must be con- cerned about personally.” And in the background, the blood of two young men pleads for common clarity and human jus- tice.
Yes, Black life matters. From the slave ships out of Africa to the Oval Office of the White House, Black life has always mattered. But Black life is part of Human life. No matter what color, creed, religion, we must never forget that on this tiny speck of dust in the universe, black, brown, white or oth- erwise, we human beings are all we’ve got.
White Gun Permit Holders Treated Differently Than Black Gun Permit Holders
nd the truth shall set you free.” We extend our condo-
lences to the Dallas community for the deaths of its po- lice officers. However, since America insists on protecting and increasing its “gun-owner culture,” and since the Con- gressional Research Service estimated that “there are roughly twice as many guns per capita in the United States as there were in 1968, more than 300 million guns in all,” we support Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s call for “national use of force standards.”
Finding data on how many white “gun-permit” carriers have been killed during police traffic stops is difficult. How- ever, Andrew Rothman, president of the Gun Owner Civil Rights Alliance, stated that in his 13 years as a permit holder, he has had three interactions with police. In each case he told officers that he was a permit holder and was carrying. “All three of them wanted to know where I was carrying the gun and I told them . . . They each turned their backs on me and continued about their business. . . I was very clearly not re- garded as a threat ... and that’s the story that I hear almost universally from permit holders in Minnesota. ..there seems to be a much higher tendency for racial minorities that the officer is going to separate the person from the firearm and
temporarily take them into custody... for most permit holders, telling a law enforcement of- ficer they’re legally carrying “is a neutral to positive” experience.” Other white gun-permit holders have posted similar experiences.
While national standards for gun-permit holding citizens and law enforcement interac- tions are necessary, such standards will be difficult to monitor because of personal biases.
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
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