Dear Double Standard

by Gemma Brand-Wolf

Dear politicians, police, and those who are supposed to be protecting us,

You tell us our voices matter. You tell us you will listen to us and fight for us and protect our rights. You want what’s best for our country? It doesn’t seem like it to me.

What it seems like to me is that you’ve all gotten wrapped up in your own power, your own game, your own “legacy”. The legacy you were supposed to leave was a better country. Instead, you are pinned against one another, republican against democrat, and no change is being made. We are in a stalemate. Our government was supposed to represent every voice. You were not supposed to systemize the bias of political parties. How are we supposed to live in equality and understanding when nothing is being done, nothing is changing, simply because our government is no longer focused on what is best for our country. Our government has become a tug-of-war, a pushing-pulling contest between political parties. Will you be happy when your party wins? Sure, maybe. But that won’t necessarily mean our country has won, our people have won what they deserve.

It is time for something to change. The tragedy of the past weeks is sign enough. This is a neon sign with blinking lights and flares and sirens. How can you not see this? Instead, you continue to advocate for your party, to claim that these things would not happen if you had more power. This is not the case. These things, these horrible, painful losses, will never cease when the people who are supposed to advocate for us are locked in a power struggle. Honestly, do you expect your citizens to treat each other with kindness if you are unable to do the same?

I would like to point out an example of the double standard you have enforced upon our society. The shooting in Dallas was given more news coverage and more sympathy than the individual deaths of two members of our community, two people who deserve just as much political frenzy as five policemen. Paul Ryan, republican Speaker of the House, pointed this out when he spoke in front of congress, without quite realizing how he highlighted this inequality. Ryan spoke about the victims of the Dallas shooting and their families, saying “I know that to be a cop’s wife or a cop’s husband is to prepare for the worst, but who could have fathomed such horror as this? There is no cause or context in which this violence, this kind of terror is justified, none at all”. What Ryan miserably failed to acknowledge, just like so many of you, is that this is the kind of “terror”, “horror”, and “violence” that the members of the black community must prepare for at any given moment.

Undeniably, the loss of five lives is an utter tragedy. But while you are mourning the loss of fellow government agents, remember that this is how more than 10% of your citizens feel on a daily basis. Remember the lives of the black men, women, and children, that truly matter just as much as those government agents. Remember that “police killed at least 102 unarmed black people in 2015, nearly twice each week”. Remember that your job is to defend the rights of every citizen of the United States.

Not only have you failed to protect your citizens, you have begun to fortify and militarize police departments across the nation. I would like to know your thought process behind this. What I see is the creation of a cycle which is illustrated by little kids who fight with their siblings because they can’t use their grown-up words. What I am referring to is the illogical and immature policy of “you hit me, I hit you back harder”. This is a cycle of fear and division. How are we supposed to feel protected by a police force that fortifies themselves behind protective equipment and assault weapons?

I ask you, I beg you, I implore you to take a step back from the thrill of the campaign, the competition. The good of your country is not a competition, it is a compromise. There are so many lives at stake, so many people’s safety on the line. You have power, do not let it go to your head, do not let it corrupt you. We need you, we would be nowhere without you. But the places you are leading us to are the wrong ones, the ones with terrifying unknowns and noises in the night. What will it take, how many lives must be lost until something changes.