I'm sure it will end well.
And it helped form Red China into the responsible, collegial member of the world community it is today.
What happened to George Floyd was an unmitigated horror. As an asthmatic, I recall the many times I was taken to the hospital because I could not breathe. The notion of someone choking off my breath with their knee hits hard. And the idea of the choker wearing a badge while doing so is worse. And the names can be multiplied: Eric Garner and Philando Castile are but two that leap to mind.
None of that should obscure the death and destruction that accompanied the protests, nor the fact that the demands have become expansive.
We have heard much about "being part of the problem" recently.
And there is a legitimate complaint there. More than legit: the "badges and incidents of slavery," to use language crafted by persons wiser than ourselves, are still in existence 155 years later. It could hardly be otherwise, less than three generations removed from the legislative and judicial bombs delivered against Jim Crow in the 1960s.
But the "part of the problem" language is one-sided, as can be expected in our times. It misses the grim reality that the causes of our problems are complex and have many sides. Not to mention that too many of the responses are destructive of the civil order needed for America to be more than an identity-riven Balkans with nukes.
The destruction of black lives and livelihoods over the past week goes far beyond the family and friends of George Floyd.
So, if you don't recognize any of the names in this column, let me humbly suggest that you, too, are part of the problem.
Unlike physics and equal and opposite reactions, social actions and reactions are rarely equal. In fact, reactions tend to be out of proportion to the original action. I have a feeling this round will result in some interesting times (Chinese definition).
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