06/06/2020
A note on "due process". While the legaleeze of the term is created to protect the legal rights and implies innocent until proven guilty within the process of the law, let's take a moment and see how it applies to people, community, humanity, and fairness. It's real easy to get angry especially in these delicate times when anything but due process is afforded our citizens and far too often the rule rather than the exception applies to people of "color". This is why "Black Lives Matter". It is a fundamental fight for decency and the protection of groups and individuals who have been unfairly profiled because of the color of their skin. Without going into a tirade, the case of George Floyd is a tragic and grotesque example of this dereliction. What compounds the tragedy were the helpless bystanders who pleaded with law enforcement when they clearly witnessed a man in distress pleading for his life who had not resisted arrest, was not even acting in an aggressive manner. And while we fully support the need to protest this aberration as well as any grotesque injustices, we don't condone the violent and emotional response that is rioting. The anger is completely understandable and justified, the act of riot is not especially when you create new innocent victims that are affected by mob and lynch mentality. To that end, please don't become what we fight for. Draw on due process as a person and within a community and make sure that your responses and actions are clearly well-founded lest you take on a similar mentality as those whose actions we oppose.
