Empathy for Black Lives Matter

I also saw a lot of hate online. People were shocked that The Blaze portrayed these grieving parents as human beings. It is sad that I feel the need to state the obvious, but my heart bleeds blue for the men and women of our police forces. But what happened in Dallas should be a reminder that we as a nation do not have to riot; we can (and must) come together.

After the massacre, I invited several Black Lives Matter believers on my show. I got to know them as people — on and off air — and invited them back again. These individuals are decent, hardworking, patriotic Americans. We don’t agree on everything, certainly not on politics; but are we not more than politics? I refuse to define each of them based on the worst among them. No movement is monolithic. The individuals I met that day are not “Black Lives Matter”; they are black Americans who feel disenfranchised and aggrieved; they are believers; they are my neighbors and my fellow citizens.

We need to listen to one another, as human beings, and try to understand one another’s pain. Empathy is not acknowledging or conceding that the pain and anger others feel is justified. Empathy is acknowledging someone else’s pain and anger while feeling for them as human beings — even, and maybe especially, when we don’t necessarily agree or understand them.