Over the last couple days I’ve been reflecting, talking with family, going down the proverbial internet rabbit hole to find a morsel of wisdom to cure an aching psyche as a result of George Floyd’s life being taken from him. I failed to find the antidote.

The one answer I have found is that everyone thinks what happened to Floyd was evil, pure and simple. Therefore, we should be able to all agree that our motivations to resolve this are well- intentioned, and isn’t this the essential ingredient for competing viewpoints to come together and resolve our most pressing challenges?

If we assume malicious intent, power grappling or any nefarious means on the other side, then any discussion is all about posturing and not about resolving problems.

The challenge is that one side must take a leap of faith. I pray that someone in power appeals to the better angels of our nature and brings people together to rinse away the final remnants of America’s original sin, not because we all agree on how to proceed but because we all agree that our hearts are aching as we replay the hoarse, fading voice of a 46-year-old black man being taken from this earth.

We need another Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln to provide a moral compass for our country. Each one of them is within us, and if we find it, live it and spread it, that will lead us so that George Floyd’s gasps for breath are not lost in vain.

Greg Maita

Burrell Township, Armstrong County

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