Many readers of the Trib are old enough to remember the Kerner report of 1968. This was the finding of a special commission appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to determine the reasons for the 1967 race riots in Detroit, Newark and other cities, and other riots going back to 1964, and to provide recommendations for the future.
The current crisis surrounding the killing of George Floyd reminds me of Yogi Berra’s famous words, “It’s deja vu all over again.” It seems the recommendations of the Kerner Commission were pretty much ignored, and here we are again. Today, as then, the conclusion of the report is chilling: The future of every American is threatened.
Our society is sick with racism and injustice; the protests are the symptom. The commission’s prescription for hope then holds for today: Increased commitment on the part of government and individual Americans with “new attitudes, new understanding and, above all, new will.”
The first step toward healing requires we shed the myth of American exceptionalism. Have we humility to confess our sins and compassion to hear the cries of our brothers and sisters? I wonder.
John R. Morrow
Bullskin