Recent news compels this letter. In 1923, the British novelist D.H. Lawrence had this to say about our country: “All the other stuff, the love, the democracy … is a sort of by-play. The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.” Thus we remember George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Dreasjon Reed, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Taylor McDade, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald, Alton Sterling, Rekia Boyd, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, Jordan Davis, Atatiana Jefferson, the Charleston Nine, Emmett Till, Elijah Lovejoy, the Jim Crow 8,000, Tulsa in 1921, Rosewood in 1923, the Trail of Tears, the Long Walk, the Chivington Massacre, Wounded Knee, and the Rio Grande.
On and on it goes, and each time, we act surprised. How many times must we prove Mr. Lawrence right before we drive out the better angels of our nature and our nation melts into oblivion?
JOHN RABY
New London