My friends and fellow Americans:
I write this column in the form of a letter of appeal because the need and remedies for unity and healing as well as law and order in our country are so great.
We’ve watched mainstream media and others polarize us over these two issues. They try to get us to swing one way or the other: Will we fight for equality, or will we fight for law and order? But I’ll say it again: They are both sorely needed. It’s not about fighting for one or the other. We all need to fight for both.
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis was nothing short of a tragic and grievous crime. And all four officers have now been charged. The peaceful protests that have ensued across our land are not only a constitutionally protected right but have been necessary for others to voice their grievances and address the despicable views and actions of racism.
On the other hand, when peaceful protests give way to crimes of looting, riots, destruction and even a wave of retaliation and injury against good peace officers, we are fueling the fires of division rather than extinguishing them.
Here’s just a small sample of the also-tragic news stories:
- 3 police injured during Brooklyn stabbing attack
- Over 30 cops injured during N.Y. riots
- In St. Louis, four officers were struck by gunfire during protests
- Multiple police officers injured when protests turn violent in Las Vegas, St. Louis
- Police officer in Las Vegas critically wounded, others in N.Y.
When my wife, Gena, and I saw the report that small-town police chief David Dorn, who was a 77-year-old African-American retired St. Louis police officer who served 38 years on the force, was shot and killed by looters at a pawn shop, we said, “Enough!”
Two wrongs don’t make a right, right? This isn’t rocket science. Vengeance and vigilantism are as degrading as racism. The calls to defund and dismantle police departments are a call for anarchy and societal chaos. Killing George Floyd and retired police chief David Dorn are both criminal acts. We are better than that, America.
I just shared the story in my last culture warrior column how my brother Wieland was killed in Vietnam by the Vietcong. But how tragic and heinous would his sacrifice have been if he were shot by another U.S. soldier? Friendly fire is exactly how we Americans are wounding and killing our own right now in our own country.
The real remedies to heal our divisions are not found in polarizing positions or even peaceful protests. They are found in our hearts and inner change. To my conservative friends, they are not found in staying silent or indifferent about racial inequality. To my liberal friends, they are not found in disdaining or dismantling law and order. Can George Floyd’s killer be brought to justice without law and order?
When Gena and I also read that airport authorities in our own Lone Star State of Texas took down the Texan Ranger statue at Dallas Love Field Airport on the basis of racism, we retorted, “Really?” Take down a representation of law and order from a tried-and-true agency of criminal justice, of which my brother Aaron and I are honorary members? Are they next going to discontinue showing daily rerun episodes of my longstanding acting role as “Walker, Texas Ranger“? I oppose all threads of racism in anyone who shows them. I equally oppose demeaning agencies of justice through which good men and women fight against evil and for law and order.
We don’t merely have racial or law enforcement problems. At its core, we have a devalued humanity problem. America has lost its way when it comes to our understanding of the true value and esteemed nature of all humanity. That includes our disregard for life in the womb and the elderly, whose value we minimize through abortion and euthanasia. Even the proliferation of verbal vomit that poses as “opinion” on social media that demeans others in front of the whole world is proof of just how far we’ve drifted from the absolute to “love your neighbor.”
If America is ever to heal its divisions in a longstanding way, both sides of the aisle have to reestablish in their hearts and minds the incredible worth of humanity over all creation. It’s about far more than superficial respect; it’s about supernatural love.
In my New York Times bestseller, “Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America,” one of my favorite chapters is “Reclaiming the Value of Human Life.” I think it’s worth the price of the entire book, especially because I believe it holds a remedy far more powerful than protests, and it goes back to the beginning of our republic.
The value of human life has not always fluctuated from person to person like it does today. Most early Americans believed humans were the highest creation of God.
Back then, there were two codes that shaped and reflected most people’s view of humanity: that God created all of us, and that we were created equal. Their views were based in the Bible and expressed in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Those words were derived from the declaration in the Good Book: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; … And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-28)
Dr. Thomas G. West, professor of politics and author of “Vindicating Our Founders,” explained, “The Founders believed that all men are created equal and that they have certain inalienable rights. All are also obliged to obey the natural law, under which we have not only rights but duties. We are obliged ‘to respect those rights in others which we value in ourselves’ (Thomas Jefferson).”
The founders believed that their declaration of equality would eventually give legs to everyone’s freedom. And for those who think that many of them as slaveholders were hypocrites to what they declared for others, I’ll have much more to say about that in my column in a few weeks as we get closer to Independence Day.
Suffice it here to say, especially in light of the needed healing of America’s divisions, our second president, John Adams, was absolutely right: “We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions … shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power … we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.”
And what is the evidence that we properly appraise or have reestablished the true value of all humanity in our own minds and hearts? Simply put: You’ll know you got it right when you treat all men, women and children the same. You’ll know when, despite your position or power, you empathize and empower other fellow Americans, just as our great Ft. Worth police did when they took a knee with peaceful protesters in their grievances. It was an even more powerful demonstration of true public service when Police Chief Ed Kraus diffused a growing showdown with protesters by praying with them as well.
When Americans “get it right,” you might even find National Guard members dancing the macarena with protesters in Downtown Atlanta!
That’s the way to heal, America! Pray we all get the message and live it out.
