July 11, 2016

5 Tammuz 5776

 

Dear Friends,

 

This has been a particularly distressing and heartbreaking week for our nation.

 

I've been out-of-town dealing with a family emergency, so I haven't had the time to read extensive analyses.  My news has come in the form of banners across the screen of my smart phone. Those banners have been awful of late.  First the shocking news -- complete with horribly graphic images -- of the killings by police of two African American men: Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn.  And then, of course, came the chilling news of the terrible assault on members of the Dallas Police Department.

 

I was reminded of Rabbi Hanina's statement in Pirkei Avot:  "Pray for the welfare of the government; were it not for the fear of it, we would swallow each other alive."

 

What a painful time for our country! For the past year or so, we have been bombarded by horrifying images and videos of African Americans being assaulted and killed by uniformed police officers.  The reaction has been relatively temperate.

 

I was reminded of the terrible riots that took place in many cities across America in the summer of 1967.  In response to those riots, President Johnson appointed a commission (the "Kerner Commission") to investigate them and to make recommendations.  The Kerner Commission came to a stark, startling conclusion: 

 

Our nation is moving toward two societies: 

one black, one white -- separate and unequal.

 

The Commission's report went on to analyze why.  (Note that in 1967, the word "Negroes" was used to refer to "African-Americans.") 

Race prejudice has shaped our history decisively; it now threatens to affect our future.

White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities...

True, 2016 is not 1967.  We have collectively learned some lessons since then.  Blacks in this country have made enormous social, economic, educational and political progress in this country.  In 1967, the suburbs were "lily white," police forces were overwhelmingly white, and the notion of a black U.S. President was unthinkable.

 

But read this excerpt from the Kerner Commission report and ask yourself whether enough change has occurred: 

The police are not merely a "spark" factor. To some Negroes police have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Negroes in the existence of police brutality and in a "double standard" of justice and protection --one for Negroes and one for whites.

Except for the use of that term, "Negro," instead of "African American," that entire upsetting last sentence could have been written today, couldn't it?  

 

In 2016, several things are clear: 

 

First, it hurts every police officer --indeed, it hurts all of us -- when a police officer, representing civil authority in this country, demonstrates disrespect, much less contempt, toward any citizens of our country, and certainly so when that disrespect and contempt are invidious.  We depend on the police to protect us, but for them to do their job effectively, they must gain and maintain the respect and trust of men and women of all races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds. Racism within police forces must be confronted and obliterated.  Police officer training, body cameras, better communication and collaboration with communities, independent reviews whenever police officers draw their weapons ...  all these are helpful tactics, but none will succeed unless there is a recognition within police forces in this country that we have a problem, a serious, systemic problem, that extends beyond the presence of a few "bad actors."

 

Second -- and to some this may seem peripheral to the immediate crisis, but I don't think it is -- we must put our heads together and figure out a way to diminish the availability and proliferation of guns in our country.  I spoke about this in shul a few weeks ago. 

 

This is not a simple matter.  There may not be a constitutional right to fly on an airplane, but there is (as it's been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court) a constitutional right to own a gun.  But surely that right is not unlimited.  Does it -- should it -- include the right to own an assault rifle?  Should that right be possessed even by people who display signs of a propensity for violent behavior? Obviously, gun control cannot prevent crime or terrorism, but it can diminish their lethality.  It might have minimized the bloodshed in Dallas.

 

Finally, we must heed the warning of the Kerner Commission and valiantly resist the balkanization of our country.  We must not allow ourselves to be divided into racial, ethnic, socio-economic tribes.  "E pluribus unum," -- "Out of Many, One," shouldn't just be our national motto. It should accurately describe our mission.

 

*          *          *          *          *

 

Notwithstanding that this has been a summer of distressing violence, we need not despair.  For again, reaching back, the Kerner Commission provides us with useful guideposts:

The ... deepening racial division [in our nation] is not inevitable. ... Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution.

[Failure to act will promote] the continuing polarization of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values.

The alternative is ... the realization of common opportunities for all within a single society.

This alternative will require a commitment to national action-compassionate, massive and sustained, .... From every American it will require new attitudes, new understanding, and, above all, new will.

Those words may have been written almost fifty years ago but we can and should follow their lead today.  Let us focus attention on addressing the root causes of the violence we are experiencing today.  Those root causes are many, but they surely include prejudice and bigotry.  Let us acknowledge them.  Let us unite as one people, made up of men and women from a variety of racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds.  And let us address together America's challenges and together pursue the dream that our nation shall indeed one day provide "liberty and justice for all." 

 

Very truly yours,

 

Rabbi Carl M. Perkins