Coronavirus19 Diary - A House Divided

We watch a murder on national television. A man on the ground, hands cuffed behind his back, a policeman on top of him, his knee on his throat, the cuffed man saying "I can't breathe". Within minutes the man is dead. His crime? Trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill. It is days before the officer responsible is charged and arrested. The officer is white, the victim black.

Protests erupt. In Minneapolis, where the incident occurred, they turn violent. There are fires and looting. The president threatens the looters with deadly force. He threatens to set dogs on the protesters, bringing to mind photos of protesters being attacked by police dogs on a bridge in the deep south 60 years ago. He threatens to order the U.S. military to take up arms against U.S. citizens. Chicago's mayor self censors her comments to the president, but makes her meaning clear. Our governor also takes the president to task for his reckless, divisive and hate filled statements.

Outside agitators integrate themselves into the crowds inciting violence. By Saturday night we watch as riots rage across the country. Reports come in from Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Washington D.C. and New York. There are buildings and police cars on fire in Philadelphia. A squad car burns on Chicago's iconic State Street. Businesses are being looted in L.A.

A reporter describes tear gas and rubber bullets being used on a peaceful protest in Minneapolis. In Chicago police are thrown to the ground as some in the crowd attempt to pull their Kevlar vests from them. Women, their arms outstretched, form a circle around the officers to protect them. Store windows are smashed, including two flagship stores of the company I work for, one a historic building which is to many synonymous with Chicago. People, seeing an opportunity, pour into the stores grabbing handfuls of goods. Agitators and thugs overwhelm the protesters who were there with a purpose, demanding justice, exercising their right to assembly.

A reporter stands outside a Target store in L.A. as 2 looters walk off with a 60" T.V. A reporter in Chicago is told by the studio to cut her feed and move to a safer location. An overhead shot shows a small crowd in L.A. destroying a nail salon, dragging an ATM outside attempting to break into it. Masks, mandated for safety, provide anonymity. Another reporter stands in a chain drugstore, it's windows gone, cash registers laying in a shambles on the floor, it's pharmacy's prescription medication and liquor departments stripped bare. Chicago's mayor breaks into T.V. programming to denounce the violence and announce a curfew, joining other mayors taking similar actions across the country.

Texts fly back and forth between me, my friends and my coworkers. By late evening a letter from my company's CEO arrives via email letting us know that stores near affected areas have been closed and all colleagues are safe and accounted for. He asks us to make ourselves available to each other for support and bemoans our not to be able to be with one another in person. He speaks with pride about the diversity of our workforce. His words are eloquent and compassionate. It is a moment of grace and calm amid the chaos.

I have witnessed violent confrontations before. I remember watching the Watts riots, taking place a few miles from our home in southern California, on the news while on vacation at my grandparents home in Oklahoma. I pleaded with my parents to stay at my grandparents. I was a small child, I was scared. I remember the Kent State shootings and the Vietnam anti war protests. Yet each of these were isolated incidents during a turbulent time. I don't recall virtually spontaneous, simultaneous protests of this magnitude erupting nationwide.

For years our nation has been divided and torn apart. Our president, aided by his political party, has continually pitted citizens against one another. His words validate the feelings of those who desire violent confrontation to preserve and defend an imaginary vision of what they feel our country should be. The words "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" in the present environment have lost their meaning. The country has veered off it's rails and lost it's path. Rhetorical oil, instead of fueling fires, needs to be poured onto the nation's troubled waters. What we are witnessing today is what the beginning of war looks like but it is not too late to turn back.

The wounds are deep, but with care and compassion they can be healed. I hope we can find the will as a nation to do this and make America, with liberty and justice for all people, at all levels of society, great again.