2020 Hindsight: A Prayer for the City

As I get ready to go to bed on the 152nd day of 2020 I am, again, filled with a lot of emotions.  On 5/31/2020, the emotions are sorrow, worry, panic, and anger.  I want to start by unequivocally stating that I completely understand and support the peaceful protests and support and stand with those who are demanding an end to the systematic aggression against and persecution of persons of color.  I, too, long for an America that is truly the home of the free and the brave.  But I cannot, and will not support actions that destroy property and place lives of first responders (and peaceful protesters for that matter) at risk.  Reports of looting, of rioting, of destruction of property, of violence against Police Officers (caustic chemicals, hitting with vehicles, throwing of bricks and other items, ALL unacceptable) make my blood boil with rage.  But they also fill me with sorrow at the realization that many of these stores (and their jobs and tax dollars) will not return to the City.  The increase of population in Center City (the only part of the City with an increase in population in the past few years) will slow and likely regress as people with resources flee to the suburbs.  All of this will result in Philadelphia, already cash-strapped and resource poor, having even less cash and fewer resources.  This will, of course, hit those in need even harder than any other population.  Public Schools will suffer, Arts and Culture will be cut, Resources for the vulnerable and oppressed will be harder to find.  Ironically this hurts the same people who are peacefully protesting.  The false equivalency between those in peaceful protest and those in violent destruction is even more emblematic of the systematic racism inherent in the system (and also of a lazy media in search of views and clicks).  My 2020 Hindsight tonight is A Prayer for the City.  No, not the Bissenger book about Ed Rendell, but a true prayer (many, in fact).  I uttered one at Church this morning, and have continued to pray all day for Philadelphia, my birth-city that I love, and for peace and resolution in the City, the Country, and the World.