A Dose of Sanity

After Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights and Dallas, I thought my TV would turn blood red. I needed a dose of sanity. So on Sunday night I watched the women's gymnastic Olympic trials. 

For me the horror of the week-that-was ended on an up note. Not only did I sit in awe of the incredible feats these girls performed, but what they did after each one turned a remarkable routine brought me that dose of sanity I needed: Hugs all around. The young contestants — white, black, Hispanic — hugged each other in a display that at any other time would have seemed to be nothing more than team spirit, but coming on the heels of the racism and hatred that resulted in seven deaths, it seemed ironic and was a welcome counterpoint to those tragedies.

And yet watching those incredible young women perform and relate so warmly to each other was a dose of sanity, it wasn't a cure. There will be more racial animosity and more deaths before we fully live up to our Declaration's most famous line: “All men are created equal.”