What is justice?

Over the course of the last week, I've had a number of thoughts about the events that started in Minneapolis and have now spread across the country.

In the face of such events, it's hard to know what to say. It's perhaps easier to say nothing at all than to speak up and say the wrong thing, but letting fear stop us from speaking wastes the opportunity to have a meaningful, yet difficult, conversation about justice.

Over the past week, I've asked myself the question, "What is justice and how do we make it happen?"

The officer who took George Floyd's life has surely felt the swift sword of justice for his actions as he sits in jail, awaiting his fate. But the sad reality is that George Floyd's story is only being told because video was quickly made public.

In Chicago, there was a similar incident, but the video remained buried for over a year while elected officials, even some of color, sat on the footage. Without addressing the governmental actions that treat these incidents with such callous indifference, has justice been served? And is justice being blocked by the protection that collective bargaining gives to bad employees?

I certainly don't have all the answers and I will never pretend to understand what it's like to be a minority in our country. However, as an elected official, I try to do the right thing for everyone, regardless of race, creed or color. And I admit that perhaps we all need a higher level of scrutiny.

I am open to a conversation about what justice looks like, bringing everyone to the table to make the changes necessary to improve race relations in our communities, our state and our country. Because what we have right now is clearly not working.

State Sen. Don DeWitt

St. Charles