The disgraceful, national disrespect for Law Enforcement reach a new high (or low) point this week with the tragic death of 5 police officers in Dallas. Unfortunately, this tragedy was just a symptom of a much larger disease.  That disease is our mistrust and hatred of those who are not like us.

Our law enforcement agencies are made up of millions of honest, hard-working people who put their lives on the line every day in order to protect us.  They do this for very little pay and even less gratitude. This has to change. We must treat our law enforcement agencies with the respect that they deserve. For too long now, every time some part of our justice system acts in a way that we do not agree with, our first response is outrage, disrespect, and accusations of corruption.

Case in point:   Last week, Republicans attacked the FBI, which is the most respected law enforcement organization in the world, simply because they did not like the outcome of an FBI investigation. Regardless of the thousands of hours of painstaking work done by the top detectives in the country, they were immediately labeled as corrupt and rigged.  The Republicans’ blind hatred of Hillary has clouded their minds so that reason and rationality have been thrown out the window.

If we want respect for law enforcement, it has to start at the top. We ALL have to respect law enforcement if we expect anybody to respect them.

Holding a Congressional hearing and questioning Comey about the investigation was not out of line.  It alone would have been a proper response. What was disgraceful was the immediate outrage expressed by lawmakers and other political leaders, who had NOT seen all of the evidence, calling the result corrupt and the end of the “Rule of Law”.

Let’s look at this from another angle: The Email Controversy has not directly affected any of us. No one has died as a result. (That we know of). But look at the outrage and mistrust of the FBI the result of this single investigation has generated. Republications’ hatred of Hillary is so intense that they cannot even entertain the possibility that she is not guilty of a crime.

Now, put yourself into the position of a Black person, who sees real people die at the hands of police again and again. For many blacks, their entire life experience has been shaped around a mistrust of police.  If you, as a Republican, refuse to trust and respect the FBI over a single issue, how can you expect black people to trust and respect the law enforcement on levels that they interact with on a daily basis?

If we are to bring this country together, we must stop hating.  And we must start at the top.

ALL OF US:  We must let law enforcement do its job. Accountability must be maintained, of course. But any oversight should be formalized and conducted with respect and impartiality, and never look like a witch hunt.  Whenever an unfortunate event happens, we need to stop rushing to judgement based on short, out-of-context clips of videos. Let’s wait for the results of the ensuring investigation and see what light is shed by the totality of the circumstances. If the officers in question violated the law, then (and only then) they should be prosecuted.

MEDIA:  Stop worrying about ratings and put some journalistic integrity back into the system.  If you are going to report a story as “news”, report it fairly and completely, without bias.  If you have an opinion, label the article as an “editorial”.   Ask yourself, “What would Edward R. Murrow do?”

POLITICIANS:  This is a political election year, and we have two strong candidates running, each of them hated by the other party, and even hated by members of their own party.

If you are a candidate running for office, focus your campaign ads on what YOU can do to fix the problems we face. Tell us how YOU are going to make our lives better. We do NOT need you to tell us what our problems are. And we really don’t need you telling us who to blame. Just tell us how you can help make it better. Don’t run attack ads labeling the other candidate as corrupt and unfit for office.   When you make speeches, stop telling us how bad your opponent is.  When you do, you are just pandering to your own audience.  Instead, make your speeches about how you can make our lives better.  Tell us how you will bring us back together as a nation.

Regardless of how you personally feel about the other candidate, roughly half this country supports and believes in that person. If you want to convince people to vote for you, attacking the person they trust and believe in is NOT the way to do it.   Attack ads just further divide us.  Let’s focus on the positive, and we all will be better in the long run.

Just as distrust breeds distrust, honesty and fair-dealing will trickle down as well, and that is what it will take to heal our country. We are the greatest country in the world because we are UNITED.   It is the unity of our diverse population that gives us our strength.  The only thing that will ever defeat us is when that unity is destroyed.   Remember the adage:  United we Stand, Divided we fall.   It’s more than just words.