Lessons learned

I write this as someone who :

*has beloved family members (male and female) who are not the same skin color as I am.

*knows full well that racism exists and is operational in our society.

*has been involved in countless police investigations over several decades.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

*Life is not an episode of Law and Order or Miami CSI.

Nothing gets resolved in increments of hours or even days.

A full investigation takes time.

*‘Facts’ are not what they always seem on first appearance.

No one person, or viewpoint, has a monopoly on ‘truth’; the piece of whatever ‘truth’ you own is only that – a piece of the truth.

*‘Truth’ is found in shades of grey.

Nothing is black or white, no matter how much we may long for the simplicity and surety of such dichotomies.

*There will be contradictory elements of truth because human beings are, by nature, contradictory creatures.

*Vigilante justice is as wrong and dangerous as mob rule;

whether that mob assembles outside a pioneer jail house in the 1800’s or in a town square in the 21^st century, egged on electronically by ‘social media’.

Take a breath, people.

Justice is blind – and slow … but it should be given time to work.

Two other things I’ve learned ?

*It doesn’t always go the way we think it ‘should'

and

*no matter how it goes, it will reveal things about ourselves we may not like.