A Sampling of Today’s Headlines:

• GOP Congressman Spent His Week Harassing Muslim Colleague on Twitter
• Police Sergeant to Precinct: If a Homeless Person is Black, Just Shoot Them
• 2 Years Later, Trump’s Muslim Ban is Still Keeping Families Apart
• Ocasio-Cortez Flooded With Bigoted Calls
• Virginia House Democrats Call for Gov. Ralph Northam’s Resignation (for black face photo)
• The Covington Teens’ Racist “Tomahawk Chop” Is The Product Of Native Mascotry
• Don Lemon Shreds Ralph Northam’s Disgusting Racism: ‘It Deeply Hurt’ Me
• RNC Gets Roasted Over “Tone Deaf” Black History Month Tweet

These headlines say a lot about our nation. We need to pay attention to the issues of race and bigotry that are becoming more - not less - prevalent as we struggle with white supremacy, white fragility, and white rage. We fought a civil war over these issues once before but we have never overcome them. Our government has never apologized for its role in the practices of genocide and slavery upon which our nation was built. Racist language is still present in the DNA of our Constitution, and has not been expunged or repudiated.

I believe the United States needs to institute a national “Truth and Reconciliation” commission based on the South African model that addressed their apartheid era. God knows we could use such a process to help our nation transition from our myth of a white european ethos of the past to a superior one based on vibrant ethnic and racial diversity for the future.