Violence as a tool in the civil rights movement should not be the last resort, it should be a never resort. I think all peaceful people would hope for and agree with this. But I think it is disingenuous of us to also not acknowledge that in this country's long struggle with the issue of civil rights for minorities it has always been that those in power used violence as a means of oppression long before those that were being oppressed fought back with concerted violent actions. Sometimes it is important who started it.
Mass arrests, jail beatings, lynchings, and church bombings all happened with such regularity as the civil rights movement was gathering momentum in the 1950s and 1960s it is surprising that our cities didn't all erupt in violence and rioting sooner than many actually did, in my opinion. And much like today with smart phones and social media, it was following film and images transmitted by TV network news that really began to illustrate what was happening in such a way that even if people wanted to choose to believe it wasn't as bad as the rabble-rousers said it was, they no longer could.
Even long ago when one side or the other tried to defend their viewpoint or their belief, they were subject to the same broad brush treatment we see today. Just because I believe something like what happened in Dallas was inevitable because of what has been happening to black men all over the country for years now, and the events of the 2 days preceding it lit the fuse on what was a bomb waiting to explode, does not mean I think it is right or justified that 5 police officers were summarily executed.
I think our nation and our society are at a crossroads. Do we start to see some healing and true reform? Do white people take heed in what Newt Gingrich had to say when he noted "It took me a long time, and a number of people talking to me through the years to get a sense of this. If you are a normal white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America and you instinctively under-estimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk." He went on to say the lack of cultural and economic progress in civil rights "creates the kind of alienation where it begins to become legitimate to think about, whether it’s in songs or slogans or whatever, the shooting of policemen. If we were to continue in this direction of alienation on both sides, you could really be a very coarse and dangerous society in 10 or 15 years." I think the only thing he gets wrong is the 10-15 years. I think we might have half that.
