I re-posted an article on FB by a police union representative. He said, “We are not Derek Chauvin. We act with restraint.” I then made a brief mention of complaints regarding fairness, and urged my “liberal’ FB friends to take the cop at his word.

Someone said that I lit the match.

Yes, I lit a match. This topic is incendiary. But the Bible says (to people who take the Bible seriously) that they are to be agents of reconciliation. In order to have reconciliation there needs to be communication between the disputants.

There is a difference between having an uncomfortable conversation and impugning people’s character and motivations.

There are plenty of people whipping up conflict. In this situation each of us needs to ask ourselves, “Am I making it easier to have a trusting conversation, a fruitful and productive conversation, or am I just fanning the flames?”

When I begin typing a sentence and I realize the sentence can only reach the period as blame and criticism, I delete the beginning and start over. There is enough blame and criticism going around.

My mom seemed to specialize in blame and criticism. She’s passed on now. She did her best, but I don’t honor her by emulating her woundedness.

And I used to emulate her woundedness.