OPINION:
President Obama flew to Dallas Tuesday to heal broken hearts, and did what he does best — break hearts into smaller pieces. He used the occasion of a memorial service, with the broken families and heartsick friends of the five slain Dallas police officers sitting before him, to offer only his lecture to white folks to repent of their sins.
Many white folks, like many black folks, surely need the lecture. Everyone has sins to repent. But only Barack Obama would think that mourners were waiting to hear his thoughts on what the French call “egalite, fraternite and liberte.” Such remarks would be useful at another time in another place.
A memorial service is meant to honor the dead and comfort the grieving, to remember the good, the brave and the noble of those left behind. The president tried to turn the service into something else, calling on law-enforcement agencies to root out bigotry in their ranks. “We have all seen this bigotry in our lives at some point,” he said. “None of us is entirely innocent. No institution is entirely immune. And that includes our police departments.”
The president seemed unaware that the men who lay in the rank of coffins before him — Michael Smith, Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Brent Thompson and Patrick Zamarripa — could use no further instructions for duty in this life. They were no further threat to anyone. It was time to honor their good deeds and leave judgment of them to a power greater than even the 44th president of the United States.
The president is perfectly entitled to honor Black Lives Matter, or any other community organization dedicated to creating commotion and tumult and sowing anger and dreams of revenge. But thoughts of kindness, compassion and even good manners dictate choosing the right occasion for the lecture.
Nevertheless, the president repeated again his support of Black Lives Matter, and said America “cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid. We can’t simply call [Black Lives Matter] a symptom of political correctness or reverse racism.”
George W. Bush struck a different theme. The former president, a resident now of Dallas and environs, said the nation is proud of the lives of the slain officers: “Our police chief and police department have been mighty inspirations for the rest of the nation. These slain officers were the best among us. We recognize that we are brothers and sisters, sharing the same brief moment on earth. We do not want the unity of grief, nor do we want the unity of fear. We want the unity of hope, affection and high purpose.” It was just the grace note needed to redeem the occasion and console a wounded city.
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