Editorial: Strive to see other perpectives

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” That question was posed by Henry David Thoreau in his masterpiece, Walden. The year was 1854 but it’s relevant today, in the wake of stories about black men losing their lives at the hands of police following minor infractions, as well as police officers being gunned down in vicious, racially motivated attacks.

With tensions escalating between police and the communities they serve, competing choruses have risen around two popular slogans – Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter demonstrations have been held in towns across the country, including York and Charlotte, to protest police overreach. At the same time, a tidal wave of support has grown for police officers in light of the kililngs of officers and the public acknowledging the risks they take to serve and protect us.

There is truth and pain on both sides of this highly charged divide but too seldom do advocates for either position view the situation through the other’s eyes. It isn’t willful blindness; we are all reflections of, and to some extent limited by, our own backgrounds and experiences.

Montrell Jackson, however, saw both sides clearly. An African American police officer in Baton Rouge, he recently posted on Facebook “I swear to God, I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me. In uniform I get nasty hateful looks and out of uniform some consider me a threat.”

Less than two weeks later he was dead, the victim of a heinous ambush that killed him and two fellow officers. His life mattered. And it shows us how much work remains to be done in the realm of race relations in general and the delicate interface between police and minority communities in particular.

One of North Carolina’s favorite sons, Michael Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Hornets, announced this week that he is joining the effort. Expressing “sadness and frustration” over escalating tensions and violence, he is donating grants of $1 million each to two organizations working to address the issue to The Institute for Community-Police Relations and The NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

We applaud Jordan’s commitment and encourage others to follow his lead. You may not be able to make a cash contribution, but there are other ways to help. Whether your primary sympathies lie on the side of police or protesters, you can resist the temptation to generalize or worse, demonize the other. You can work to tone down the dangerous rhetoric that springs from fear and ignorance. You can be a voice for empathy and understanding in your community.

We can all strive to be the lens through which someone else sees a different perspective. If enough of us made an effort, that would be miraculous indeed!

This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Editorial: Strive to see other perpectives."