Flying on fire

Dan Carlson

This weekend I was on fire. First for officially starting my marathon training. We put 12 miles down on Saturday. That felt good. It always feels good to me to say "I am in marathon training" to anyone who asks me what I did over the weekend.

I was also on fire in a different way because I saw one too many Facebook posts about how Black Lives Matter should be reacting and how it should be All Lives Matter. While I agree that all lives matter, the fact is that it doesn't look like that from where I stand. And if all lives truly matter, why aren't people of all colors out marching and protesting when a certain group doesn't feel as if it matters at all? Aren't black lives a part of all lives? Or are we just a subset that is only relevant when you want our votes or our money?

I am not going to reminisce about everything I saw or heard the past year or so. I am not naïve enough to believe that all black people are wonderful. I also do not believe that all police officers are either. We must stop generalizing and stereotyping on all sides.

I will not however sit back and be silent when someone tells me how I should behave when I hear about another unarmed black male being shot. Or when police 'mistakenly' shot 107 times into a car with a mother and child. Do not get me started! Not every infraction carries the death penalty. And when death occurs it should be investigated to the full extent.

The fact that anyone has to remind us that any life matters should be a signal that something is terribly wrong. Does it really matter who is throwing up the signal?