Dude.
Have you read the 4th verse of our national anthem? Holy shit, it's wildly racist.
the confederate flag is racist. And hateful. It's also the flag of treasonous losers. If you claim to Love America, then you should be 100% with "oh, yeah, f**k those guys. Get rid of the flags, the statues, all of it."
No, we dont' want 0 police. We just think it's ridiculous that we expect the cops to deal with the mentally ill, homelessness, domestic violence, and all that other crap ON TOP of dealing with the aftermath of crime. We should take all the money we're pouring into the cops, and pour it into people who can actually reduce those things. That way the cops can do the job they want to do- enforce the laws.
Look, it comes down to the "more perfect union." You can't make something better without acknowledging the flaws. You can't fix a problem if you refuse to admit there's a problem.
It's okay to say "I Love this country but we have problems. And we need to work on them." There's nothing wrong with that.
I joined the Army right out of High School. I was prepared to die for this country. I was prepared to kill for it. I grew up on a lily white suburb of Minneapolis. In the army, I met people that changed how I looked at things. I was kinda conservative back then. But I came out more liberal, because of who I met and what I learned.
Reagan said, "I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still."
We can be that city! We can be that place! A place where everyone is welcome and embraced as a brother. You just have to let go of the things your afraid of. Because those things aren't real.