What do we do to turn our anger into love?

Let me begin by saying that I don't know what it is like to be black in America. I don't know what it would be like to automatically become a suspect by so many policing authorities simply because of the color of my skin. I don't know what it would be like to see my life considered to be less precious because I was black. I do know that I would be angry inside.

I am angry and appalled to see Ahmaud Arbery hunted down and killed because he was not in "his" neighborhood. And now George Floyd, whose life was slowly snuffed out by a soulless human being on video while three other officers stood by and did nothing.

The question for all Americans now is what do we do with that anger? For that I must turn to my Christian faith and the man who though he suffered much brutality and injustice, as did his Lord, exemplified that faith, Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King's faith informed his life. We remember him as a great man because leaning on his faith he had the courage and confidence not "to return evil for evil." He knew "Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that."

I was born in 1952. I am old enough to remember peaceful protest being met with fire hoses and German shepherds. We thankfully are not still there yet. But neither are we where we could be, or where we should be. A place and a nation so eloquently described by Dr. King.

May we all come together on the hard work of positive change, and with God's help to "To love our neighbor as ourselves."

Richard Armour

Arlington Heights