We do need more of this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027992213

I have done that a lot lately

And a heck of a lot of it.

I can't help but wonder, though: would this have happened before the sniper shot and killed cops in Dallas?

At least one cop understood that he could be killed because of color and nothing else.

Yes, I know. More good cops than bad. Trying to do a good job. All the usual lines.

But the citizenry has had to endure fear and pain for a VERY long time. The mistrusted need to start the work to earn trust from the untrusting.

Many feel there is a face off between sides, like cops versus african-americans, Republicans versus Democrats, center-leftists versus liberals. It didn't start big, but gets big.

A tiny rebuff leads to a small rebuff in reaction which leads to a growing gap that widens as long as both sides glare at each other.

The problem is that there is so much entrenched mistrust that nobody knows where it started, since it really started before the idea of the "United States of America".

[font size="+1"]"Not me, you first" is what makes small divides unbridgeable.[/font]

The officer in the OP did not say "you first". The officer took the first step to bridge the gap.

You too, can make baby first steps.

These men mistrust cops, but took the first step: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027990669

it was started by the cop. There may be a long way to go, but maybe the ripple will grow.

It's beautiful and yes, we certainly do need a lot more more of this!

More of this, please! Some of the reactions to this week's horrible, horrible killings have surprised me, and it's heartwarming.

and Retweet this!

If tears could heal I think we'd all be on our way to healing.

instead of a she? But baby steps are better than no steps.

Has been restored to my soul. Thank you

"Captain's log, stardate... Armageddon. We must find a way to defeat the alien force of hate that has taken over the Enterprise, stop the war now, or spend eternity in futile, bloody violence."

Mara realizes that the alien entity actually exists. Scott tells her that the Klingons are also under alien power and that a truce would save both the Klingons and Humans aboard the Enterprise. However, Mara insists that her people must continue to hunt and fight in order to survive. When Kirk tells her that mutual trust and assistance can also help a civilization endure, Mara agrees to help the captain and take him to Kang.

....Kirk and Kang fight each other. Outside, a team of Starfleet security officers led by Spock and McCoy battle several Klingons. The senior officers leave the confrontation and enter engineering. They watch as Kirk surrenders and finally manages to persuade Kang that they are all being controlled by an alien. Eventually, the Klingon commander purposefully drops his sword. He and Kirk use ship-wide intercom to direct their troops to cease hostilities. When the officers comply, the entity is weakened by the abrupt termination of violence.

Calling the alien a "dead duck", Kirk urges the anomaly to leave the ship. At Spock's suggestion that "good spirits" may help to combat the entity, Kirk laughs with McCoy and Kang, and the alien eventually departs the Enterprise into open space. ....

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Day_of_the_Dove_(episode)

on that one soon. I have TOS, Next Gen, and Enterprise on my Hulu watch list. I think TOS took on social issues better than the shows that followed.

Back in the 60s and 70's there were way more socially conscious programming.

Reality TV and once thoughtfull networks like Natural Geographic covering moonshiners ain't encouraging any thoughtful involvement

most want flash, not substance.

They had bodies that were bi-lateral - black on one side, white on the other. Both thought that they were "superior" to the other and that the "other" were obviously worthy of their hate.

The crew of the Enterprise couldn't understand why they hated each other since they looked totally alike. Then one of them explained that one group was black on one side while the other were white on that side. Was that not obvious and apparent?

Edgy stuff at the time with a lesson in there somewhere.

I also saw a post from a conservative friend that showed, in a series of photos, white police officers bringing groceries to a black woman who was alleged to have stolen half a dozen eggs to feed her kids -- as opposed to arresting her. It was very touching.

The optimist in me wants to believe these stories are true. The cynic in me is skeptical.

Giving her a break was a good thing.

She needs more than that. Like a living wage job, day care that's affordable and public assistance until she's able to sustain herself and family.

We really need a society make over

Now, if they would just stop covering up for their criminal co-workers.

This is a summer of pain.

But, hope does spring eternal. Praying that it really did happen this way.

No hug because I didn't need one, but on a day of racial violence a lovely person just reaching out to a stranger, me, brief gentle fingers on an arm in refusal to accept the divisions some insist on.

Even a complicit glance instead of an alienating scowl can go a long way towards calming the tension.

It was the most wonderful feeling of casual relations between the complete mix of what America is ethnically. Everyone was so good to me and each other. Race, religion, national origin, religion never came up. I get emotional thinking about it. Other than the surgery, it was one of greatest experiences of my life and gives me hope just when I was running out of it.

It may not occur in my lifetime, but it is inevitably coming.

Who would have ever guessed the VA in Temple, Texas is an important agent of change for the good.

I was working on a commercial shoot in the Los Angeles Coliseum. While we were working, a white jury in Simi Valley was deliberating the fate of a group of white police officers charged in the Rodney King beating. When the "not guilty" verdict was announced, we all heard it live and work paused as we all dealt with our reactions in our own way. I was a jumble of conflicting emotions, when I found myself near the only black crew member there that day, and although I didn't know him personally, I found myself reaching out to him and saying something like, "I just want you to know that not all of us agree with all this shit," and I began to sob uncontrollably and turned away from him, embarassed by my lack of control of my emotions.

Today, I am not embarassed to say Natasha has moved me to tears again.

"Can't we all just get along?"