The Flag

AN EDITED VERSION OF THIS POST APPEARS IN THE BERGEN RECORD ON JUNE 28,2015

It is like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound.

Are we to applaud those whose policies have perpetuated the racial chasm in this country merely because they have been pressured to remove the most virulent symbol of that racism?

After Newtown, there was hope that the brutal slaying of 20 young, innocent whites would provide the impetus for substantive change in our gun control laws. Even that proved fallacy, as we learned that entrenched beliefs are virtually immutable, and even the most horrific of tragedies is no match for those who have their own definitions of what is happening before their eyes.

So too, I fear that the events at this church will soon be only another pock mock on our landscape. Those who don't see the prejudices that translate into a permanent black underclass relegated to a diminished life merely by the happenstance of birth, will fail to find any great meaning in the nine deaths. Taking down the flag will not educate but enrage these people.

And yes, we are a society in need of a wake up call. We somnambulate, giving  little notice and less credence to the moments that should be reshaping our thoughts and the lives of so many millions. Take down the flag, but more importantly, take down the barriers to understanding and sympathy for without that, the wound will only fester.