Terry Foster: We Should All Feel Sick About Where We Are As A Country
By Terry Foster
The Family Deal
I feel sick today.
Our county is divided and my biggest fear is there is no hope in sight.
Two men did not go home to their families after being murdered by police in Minnesota and Louisiana. In my mind, they were both crimes and the officers should be punished.
Thursday night, five Dallas police officers did not go home to their families. They were assassinated in the streets of the city during a chaotic night I will never forget.
In all six cases Americans, both black and white, were murdered like animals. And quite frankly I am sick of it. But I know more nights like this are coming because we don't care about one another and we do not listen to one another.
Last night, I watched the peaceful protests in Dallas and St. Paul over the shooting deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. As we talked about the murders, I turned to my wife Adrienne and told her "You know a police officer is going to get shot?"
She talked about how it was the wrong thing to do no matter how angry black people are. About 30 seconds after that the first reports of police shootings came in.
I felt disgusted.
We should all feel sick about where we are as a country.
Last year, I said there is a war between black males and the police. People laughed. Then two officers were killed in New York. The laughter stopped. And now the war continues.
We are all in this war and it will continue until we all come together and talk and figure this thing out. So when do we start?
Isn't now a great time?
But it won't happen.
The police are too busy protecting each other.
Blacks are too busy looking out for their interests.
Whites are too busy looking for every shred of evidence why killing blacks should be open game.
In many of our minds, black lives do not matter. Police lives do not matter.
So when do we stop yelling at each other and actually talk?
The police killings were planned, cowardly and will not help anything. Last night there was a disturbing tweet that came from a white hate group that read: "This is war now. Watch out Obama. Watch out black lives matter punks. Real America is coming after you."
It was deleted but the damage is done.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown said something that is true but disturbing.
"We don't feel much support most days. Let's not make today most days," he said. "Please we need your support to be able to protect you from men like these, who carried out this tragic, tragic event."
Think about it. Do you support your local police? Today would be a good time to start.
(Foster can be reached at Terry.Foster@cbsradio.com. Twitter: TerryFoster971)
