A power address from U.S. president Barack Obama at a memorial for the five police officers who were tragically killed in Dallas, which he calls not just an act of “demented violence, but an act of racial hatred.”
The officers were killed during a protest over the recent deadly police shootings of two black men and the Dallas gunman said he wanted to kill white people, especialy white officers. Obama says the deepest fault lines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed and maybe even widened.
“Faced with this violence we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African-American community that feels unfairly targeted by police and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs can ever understand each others’ experience.”
Obama says he is here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem and that his faith tells him that these five officers did not die in vain.
“I believe our sorrow can make us a better country. I believe our righteous anger can be transformed into more justice and more peace. Weeping may endure for a night but I’m convinced joy comes in the morning.
Obama says with an open heart we can learn to stand in each others’ shoes and look at the world through each others’ eyes.
