unAmerican by order of law

re: "‘Law and Order’ for ‘Blacks and Hippies’" (The New York Times, June 23, 2020)

Good to see Trump and his called out bluntly for the unAmerican bigots that they are.

It is because we all make mistakes that our social institutions, conventions and assumptions must be continually challenged. There is always room to do better. This is why women protested to get the vote against majority opinion. This is why patriotic Americans protested against the Jim Crow laws. This is why gay men, initially those brave saints of the Stonewall Inn riots (Yes, riots) protested in drag and leather. All were condemned by conservative society. In every case, the conservatives were morally wrong. Their weapon of choice against social, political and moral progress was the law, epitomized in the call to law and order, ever the rallying call of the despots and dictators the world over intent on repression.

We can forgive our grandfathers who knew not what they did their unjust law that violated rights; no such excuse is available today.

A great strength of America is its ideal whereby the people can petition to change bad law, no matter how traditional its prejudice, nor how religiously endorsed its immorality, nor how socially conventional its injustice, nor how simplistic its fake solutions to real failings.

America should be the land of the free, not the land of underlings dictated to by bigots imposing their narrow vision of inhumanity on all. The call to law and order to justify violating individuals is the excuse expected from communist China and ilk, not from America.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to the The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/opinion/trump-police-reform.html#commentsContainer&permid=107724172:107724172