People like to talk about this being a human thing. It’s about empathy. I can dig it. It’s true that we should feel something at death. The only things that I find killable these days are mosquitoes and flies. I’m sure one day that my “thou shalt not kill” attitude will one day extend there as well. However, in this case, and especially as I’ve been debating alt-right people on this topic quite a bit, I must call in something else. It’s all good to have empathy and to value all lives; however, when there are organizations, institutions, people in power writing policy based on white christian fundamentalist dogma and half of a millennium of slavery, genocide and theft, then I can’t be altruistic. I must be practical. I can’t talk about humanity mattering if I’m not viewed as human. I can’t talk about all lives mattering when mine does not, and I can’t talk about unjust policing when it’s ok to practice policing this way in non-white neighborhoods. I’d like to, but i’m no fool.