Thanks for a thoughtful and thought-provoking piece, Harold. Trying to honestly express your thoughts and reactions to the horrors we are witnessing on a daily basis seems to me to be the opposite of moral cowardice. I hope you will forgive my rambling, which will likely prove to be more extensive than yours. I have found in these last days that it helps me to be clear about what and think and believe and also to deal with the very strong feelings I have about what is happening before our eyes. I agree with much of what you have to say, but I wanted to respond to some issues that seem to arise in many attempts to discuss this moment in our history and that came up for me as I read the column. Please forgive me if I have read you wrong. Even if I have, I find it helpful to put my thoughts in writing. First, I am confused by your use of the word militant as a descriptor for Black Lives Matter, which has consistently advocated non-violent resistance to a violent power structure. Second, Black Lives Matter is an organization with chapters throughout the country that has been instrumental in forcing many in our nation to grapple with the destruction of Black bodies by, or with the tacit approval of, agents of the state that has been part of the fabric of our society for hundreds of years. BLM needs to be distinguished from what might be described as the black lives matter movement. The movement that has arisen, thanks largely to the efforts and organizing of BLM, is made up of diverse organizations and individuals who have come together to denounce the state-sanctioned destruction of Black lives with impunity. Whether discussing BLM or this movement, many within and outside the media have consistently put forward a false narrative that places police on one side and the movement on the other as if they are in opposition. Although I don't believe this is how you view the situation, your column can be read this way. The BLM or blm movement is not about "bad cops" or "good cops" or about police practices per se, or about the grief for lives lost, although these are all highly relevant for obvious reasons. It is about our consistent refusal to seek justice for Black people killed by agents of the state and our failure to hold any members of law enforcement accountable for these killings and our failure to hold anyone accountable for covering up the killings, protecting, or lying on behalf of the killers. For this movement the individuals who pull the trigger are much less important than the systems that produce, support, and protect them. There is nothing anti-police in saying that police and public officials should not be above the law, as they have been for hundreds of years where Black bodies are concerned. Third, #SayTheirNames is less about grieving or honoring the dead than it is about bearing witness to what was done to them with impunity. Emmett Till could have been grieved with a closed casket. His open casket and the pictures of him served a different function. Our cameras are the open casket now. Expressions of sympathy for the police officers murdered in Dallas should not be equated with the hashtags that are now so numerous it is hard to keep up with them. Whether talking about those killed in Dallas or those whose names we say, these are lives that should not have been taken and murders that should be condemned. But it seems that you are suggesting that BLM should have made a statement that focuses on the lives lost and equates the lives taken in Dallas with those who have been killed by police. The problem with this is that the two types of murder are completely different. On the one hand there was a horrific murder of 5 police killed by an individual while doing their jobs. That individual was not only held accountable, he was killed for his crime. There is no history or pattern of police being killed in our country without repercussions for their killers. In fact, it would be difficult to come up with even one instance of someone "getting away with murder" of a police officer. On the other hand, those whose names we say are killed again and again without any convictions and nearly always without any charges. I believe that BLM is right to maintain the focus on the systematic destruction of Black bodies by agents of the state with impunity, particularly when the attention of so many has shifted to Dallas. Thanks for reading this late-night rambling. I am, of course, interested in your reactions to it, which will likely be even more helpful to me than writing it was.