Let's be clear...

if you want to unite the country, keep partisan politics out of national tragedies. 

• A White cop kills a Black man in Baton Rogue.
• A Hispanic cop kills a Black man in Mpls.
• A Black man kills five White cops in Dallas.
• Obama gives speech decrying "gun violence" and demanding more federal oversight of police forces.
• Hillary gives a speech lecturing White people.

Fact: Gun control, federal oversight, and racist white privilege are not uniting concepts. Redefining the Dallas executions as gun violence, offering more federal "retraining" of polices forces on race, or demanding that it's white people who are the ones (apparently the only ones) who need to look in the mirror are all insulting arguments to make to many people in this country. Anyone who could look into these statements and not see them as political pandering to their own interest groups, is too far gone to even reason with at this point.

In addressing Donald Trump's statement, one could argue that calling on Americans to stand behind law enforcement is a similarly divisive statement to some (especially in the black community), but at the very least he was willing to address the two cop related shootings as senseless (even as he left it open to interpretation what he deemed to be senseless). It's also a matter of decorum to ask people to stand behind a person or a group of people after they suffer great tragedy. Although it's also obvious that some will read more into the statement than that, and think he is taking sides.

Of the statements, I find asking people to stand behind law enforcement (after five officers were executed) to be the least objectionable statement. But that could also be because I agree with the general overall concept that we should stand behind law enforcement. I believe that the facts over the past several years has shown that more often than not, it's a mistake to give the benefit of the doubt to the first reports (in these types of shootings). But yet, again and again and again, it's exactly what the media and many of out politicians do, because the racist shooting is a better story (and better political theater) than a justified shooting. Let's face it, once the accusation of a bad shooting is out there, there is not enough evidence in the world to make some change their minds.

United: When the President steps up and says he believes we are more united today than in the past, I wonder exactly how filtered his view of our country is? Does he not see what is going on, or does he believe that his bully pulpit is so powerful, that by claiming unity, some of his supporters will just believe it so? 

Either way, the very definition of unity does not allow for the fundamental disagreements we have in this county right now. I don't recall ever seeing two Parties less unified heading into their conventions than they are right now. A majority of the county mistrusts both candidates, and over half of the country believe that the presumptive Democratic nominee should have been indicted. We are seeing racial violence at a rate that we have not seen in decades. We disagree on how to solve most every issue facing the country, and cannot even agree on what to call ISIS and their violent terror attacks. 

None of this is helped by our political leaders pandering to partisanship in the wake of national tragedies. There are actually things that can be said that most everyone will agree with. Make those statements if you are looking for unity. There are also things that can be said that will divide people. Don't make those statements unless you are looking to further divide.

This doesn't seem like rocket science to me, folks.