Defeat: (n) an instance of loss; setback

A whole series of little words in a row. There’s no way you could know that.

I decided to take them all and place them under one banner.

There was “deface, defame, default.” And in there was “defund.”

All these words have contemporary applications and are being used to describe our dealings with national institutions.

• Like the police department.
• Racial relations.
• And monuments as symbols of honor.

Let’s start with the monuments.

Perhaps it was a ragged idea in the first place–to build stone monuments to people representing ideas that might not seem as regal in another hundred years. Even though there were some noble intentions, the memories to such inhuman ideas need to decrease, not increase.

Then we have entrenched organizations, like the American police force, which are facing criticism verging on condemnation, because of the poor treatment some have given to areas of the human community.

In all cases, we are attempting to solve long-running struggles in one fell swoop.

This brings in many people with many opinions.

Can we hear them all?

Is it possible to find a consensus?

Or will one man’s honor necessarily be another man’s pain?

It is obvious to me that we can no longer attribute devotion to men and women who gave their lives in the service of holding others in bondage. Sometimes you need more than “meant well.” It actually has to end up well.

And some of these organizations are just getting their feet wet—and it wouldn’t behoove them to accept the responsibility of finding language which respects the life and times of other humans.

It is not easy.

It is also necessary that those who destroy property in the name of history be given a day in court, to clarify their actions.

We must now allow ourselves to proclaim what historically was racism to be patriotism. It is not.

And we must eradicate our tendency to rationalize evil actions.

In our hearts, we know this is the path to defeat.