Two painful blows reduced our democratic republic of laws (and public confidence in enforcing them) to shock and tears last week.
The five Dallas police officers assassinated and seven wounded by a hate-filled sniper happened soon after FBI Director James Comey's outrageous decision not to hold former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criminally accountable for "extreme carelessness" in mishandling and misusing her private, unsecured email server containing classified and top secret materials.
What a bad and sad week for criminal justice it was, as amplified by the public outcries generated.
During a grilling on Capitol Hill over the contradictory and confusing decision to let presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Clinton skate free in a stunning lack of accountability to her former position of sacred public trust, the FBI's top man laid out every legal justification for recommending criminal charges, then said he wouldn't do so because she didn't "intend" to break the law.
In light of the alarming details Comey disclosed, I found his conclusion disgraceful and reeking of hard-core, Machiavellian Chicago-esque politics. He denied that was the case, as did all parties involved.
After previously reporting on corruption in Chicago, I wasn't surprised. Politics in a principality consist of actions and activities by elected leaders (elitists) who serve their agenda's interests above those benefiting the general public while defying and denying obvious truth.
At any rate, Comey did himself (and an otherwise honorable legal career) no favors with his wrongheaded decision. Desire it or not, he's forever branded himself as the FBI director who allowed Clinton to avoid prosecution after publicly laying out a compelling criminal case of gross negligence. Only he called it "extreme carelessness."
That flaming Comey barbecue before Congress was immediately followed by another shooter bent on mass murder. Only this time the dead were Dallas peace officers with others wounded.
The gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, was a black Army veteran who said he acted alone without any affiliation. His rampage was spurred as retaliation for police in other states shooting black men in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier that week. He reportedly told police he just wanted to kill white people, especially police. Afterwards, police in Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee also were targeted in attacks.
With the Dallas killings coming during an otherwise orderly Black Lives Matter demonstration in Dallas, triggered by a police shooting in Minnesota, we can hope Johnson's killings don't lead to the racial summer of "rage" some predicted as politically inspired and encouraged well before last week.
How tragic that would be for all Americans, as well as our republic's rules of law and order.
We were formed as a nation where regard and respect for each other and individual rights under law is imperative. The level of melanin in our skin remains irrelevant. It may sound trite to echo the late Dr. Martin Luther King, but what makes each of us strong, along with the society we share, is the content of our individual character and commitment to treating everyone else the way we want to be treated. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that," he reminds us.
This applies to everyone, including police in their treatment of all citizens and the way our population reacts with respect toward the responsibilities of law enforcement. Yes, valued readers, good and evil most assuredly exist. And it feels as if evil is being allowed to push deeper into every corner of our culture and nation today.
In the police shooting deaths, I agree with both of Arkansas' U.S. senators. Sen. John Boozman described the murders as horrific and heartbreaking. He also rightly labeled Johnson a coward.
Sen. Tom Cotton took it a step farther, referring to the "assassination of police officers trying to protect innocent civilians" as an "evil and heinous act which tears at our social fabric and revolts the conscience."
There are those with influence over our lives whose clear intent is to shred our social fabric through generating dissension and hate, racially and otherwise. I believe many Americans can see exactly who these people (puppet masters) are as well as the methods and timing they're using to pull strings and play on anger and frustration.
More than ever before, we need to search our individual and collective consciences to know deep in our hearts what's right and true versus deceptive and calculated.
But I'm also finally wise enough to know mentally disordered people filled with anger and bent on committing irrational acts of murder against innocents will be stirred not a single millimeter by written appeals for reason and tolerance.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 07/12/2016