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Two Pictures, One Coin
I present to you two pictures. The first picture is of a police officer using his knee to suffocate George Floyd, a non-violent suspect in a white-collar crime. This police officer needlessly killed Mr. Floyd and will no doubt be charged in his death, likely going to prison for manslaughter along with the other officers that did nothing to stop him.
Because of his position as a police officer, an unquestioned authority figure within our cultural landscape, this officer believes that the law does not pertain to his behaviors. He can shoot your dog, plant evidence, or even kill you during a no-knock raid with no consequences because the public generally respects the police, and they don’t want to be considered “anti-cop.” He feels no shame in hiding his actions behind a badge. The officer regards our silence toward unpunished police brutality as tacit permission to continue and even escalate his casual use of violence. The fact that he eventually killed someone is not a random accident; it is the long-term consequence of a man that was never held accountable for his actions.
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At the end of the social media executive order signing announcement, President Trump made even bigger news. The transcript is now posted, along with the permanent video and the executive order. See the president’s opening remarks and Attorney General Barr’s comments below.* These were a big enough story in themselves.
Our republic has arrived at a critical moment in its battle with a deadly infection. The threat is hardly a virus. It is a perpetual cancer that any people valuing liberty will have to fight time and time again. As a nation, we were gifted with important tools for the fight. But they have grown rusty, mostly from lack of use and being pushed to the back of the shed for more shiny instruments pretending to be modern while only offering an ancient, destructive blunt force: authoritarian tyranny.
“Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and those which occur in polite conversation.”–Thomas Bulfinch
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act prevents web sites from being sued as if they were publishers. Without that, there would be no Facebook or Twitter, or product reviews on Amazon. Any site that allowed users to post could be sued for what they said.
The news media condemns itself, as does our political class, once more, with their relative silence. A true American hero, whose virtue was proved in the skies of two wars, the hell on earth of the worst part of the Communist Vietnamese torture chambers, and in the halls of Congress that so often corrupt, has been called home. Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel, retired Congressman Sam Johnson went home on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at the age of 89. There is a famous photograph of Colonel Johnson reunified with his wife, Shirley, after seven years of captivity. At the end of May 2020, I believe they were reunified a second time. We do not know what Heaven is actually like, but we may well imagine these two people embracing again in bodies not ravaged by this fallen world.
When viral videos of conflicts between blacks and law enforcement officers, blacks being harassed by white women comedically known as “Karens,” or blacks being criminally profiled by overzealous white males are released, I make it a point to say as little as possible – especially on social media.
I am watching some online streams from the “protests” in Minneapolis. The situation involves mounted police, buildings burning, teargas, and strike teams. You can call it a riot and this is the second night.
If you’re looking for wisdom and wit, you won’t find much of it here. For the past few days, I’ve been organizing and clearing out my mind, and these random ideas were left over.
This is a subject that has come up first in the comments with the 
