Biden showed empathy, humility, and wisdom in Kenosha: Day 54 out of 100 Days of Loving Joe Biden

by GoodNewsRoundup

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Friday, Sep. 04, 2020 Friday, Sep. 04, 2020 at 4:00:19am PDT

Biden traveled to Kenosha yesterday to address the unrest in that city. Before he left he released this ad:

YouTube Video

and while he was there he did listen. He listened a lot:

While there he met with members of Blake’s family

Jacob Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, criticized Trump at an impromptu rally in front of the Kenosha church where Biden was meeting with community members.

Justin Blake said he had met briefly with Biden, who talked about the need for change.

“The first word out of his mouth was ‘reform,’” Blake said about Biden. “That’s a start, a sliver of the cake. …That he mentioned reform is a hell of a thing, because the guy sitting there now is not even mentioning it.”

from the Blake’s lawyer:

Biden then held a community meeting

At that meeting, Biden listened to community members including a firefighter, a small business owner whose shop had been damaged and looted, and a local attorney. In his own remarks, Biden said of his past optimism that the United States had progressed toward racial justice, “I made a mistake about something. I thought you could defeat hate. Hate only hides. And when someone in authority breathes oxygen under that rock, it legitimizes those folks to come on out from under the rocks.”

He spoke but he also listened -- a lot — and took notes.

Biden committed to action:

Biden pledged, if elected, to create a White House commission on policing. “I'll bring everyone to the table,” he said. “Including police chiefs, including civil rights activists, including NAACP, including the Latino community. We're going to sit down there, and we're going to work it out.”

“I believe the vast majority of the community writ large, as well as law enforcement, want to straighten things out, not inflame things, but this president keeps throwing gasoline on the fire, every place he goes.”

There is no simple and easy solution to the crisis we are facing. But the first step has to involve leadership that really listens and is willing to consider important changes.

Joe Biden is doing just that.

During an emotional meeting held in a church not far from looted downtown buildings, Biden made some of his most direct comments yet on the subject of race, growing introspective at times and speaking barely above a whisper. He said the shock over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, and the shooting that paralyzed Jacob Blake in Kenosha on Aug. 23, has provided the first window in generations for the nation to address centuries-old problems.

“We’re finally now getting to the point where we’re going to address the original sin in this country … slavery, and all the vestiges of it,” Biden said. “I can’t guarantee you everything gets solved in four years. But I can guarantee you one thing, it will be a whole heck of a lot better, we’ll move a lot further down the road.”