There was nothing senseless about the Dallas murders. They were the inevitable response to a toxic ideology that rationalizes the spilling of Pig’s Blood. Micah Johnson set out to kill white people, specifically white law enforcement. According to his Facebook page (since removed), he had joined the Mississippi branch of the Black Panther Party. Johnson was an incendiary retread in the cast of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver in his cop-shooting days.

Those half-forgotten names represent a racial antagonism that considers itself justified in the name of historic grievance and claims of ongoing persecution. As a poster stated on the Facebook page of the African American Defense League on July 18: “Where was ‘All Lives Matter’ between 1619 and 1968?”

The character of Elley’s participation in these interfaith clambakes sends a signal: America’s race industry is advantageous to the caliphate’s advance men. A gun grab, too, has uses. His presence serves as warning that our existence is intolerable to some others, possibly even those who pray with us. But it is an alarm we prefer not to hear.

This month, the florist sent no roses. The library featured no relevant books. No one read an essay by a police widow. It was left to volunteers in the Chappaqua Fire Department to release sky lanterns into the gathering dark in honor of the dead.