New Orleans. St Paul. Dallas. WTF?

All I could say as I heard the news about what has happened this week is: WTF?!?

New Orleans was police brutality. No questions asked. The men involved do not even deserve to be called police officers.

St Paul was horrific. That man deserves to be behind bars. 

All three men do.

Dallas was … I'm short of words for what happened.

I've read about what the police say was the motive. I can understand where the shooter is coming from. I can sympathize with his anger.

I will *never* justify his actions.

The actions of the gunman will be used by capitalist and conservative forces as a need to further repress African American citizens rather than trust them and give them more freedom.

By the same token, the actions (deliberate at that) of the three men that are responsible for the deaths Philando Castile and Alton Sterling belong behind bars – not relieved of duty or on any sort of salary – behind bars. If I did what they did, that's where I would be.

Why do we have one set of rules for civilians and another set of rules for police and law enforcement?

This country needs to come to terms with how it treats African Americans.

From what I have heard the shooter in Dallas was an African American. A former Army National Guardsman. So he was trained in administering violence. He served a tour in Afghanistan and who knows what he saw and did over there.

Question: Did he suffer PTSD from serving in a war zone?

Why do we not provide better mental health and support services for our soldiers when they come home form war and after they leave the military?

Why do we as a nation glorify violence and see violence as a solution to every problem we have?

And then when it comes home to roost we stand back in total shock and disbelief.

So many questions. 

So much pain.

I work forward to the day when we do have socialism in power and we use war only as a last resort rather than the first and only solution.

I work forward to the day when men and women see the military as a last resort for a career rather than the only option or way for them to receive career training or a way to pay for college.

I work forward to a day when this country stops seeing African Americans as second class citizens and treats them as equals in democracy and society.

I work forward to the day when I turn on the news and I'm not greeted by stories of murder and violence but instead have some good news to report.

I look back to build understanding.

I work forward to build the society that I want to live in.

Say their names.

All of them.

All of them: Victims of ignorance and anger.

We can and need to do better than this.