Now, suddenly, we all need to cool off

When I was a young boy in Catholic grammar school, I was picking persimmons off a tree on the other side of the school fence and throwing them at my class mates in the schoolyard. Monsignor Kilcoyne happened to be walking by and saw me. In a white-hot rage of Irish anger he marched over, grabbed me by the collar, and demanded my name. He told me that he would inform my teacher, Sister Agnita, what had happened and I would be punished appropriately. Then he marched off.

I was terrified. I had messed up badly. I did not know what punishment Sister would mete out, but I thought I would be better off me if I showed some contrition. I turned to my classmates in the schoolyard and said: “We all need to be sorry for what we have done.”

At that point, one of the boys in my class, Steve, came forward and said: “What do you mean: we? I didn’t pick any persimmons off the tree. You were the one who did it. And now you are the one who is going to pay the price. Don’t try to spread your guilt around to rest of us.” I immediately recognized how right he was and my face burned with shame.

I was reminded of this episode when I read how Bill de Blasio told a group of policemen this last weekend “We are all in this together.” “No we aren’t.” one of the officers replied.

For months de Blasio has been the foremost source of alienation and division between the police and communities of color in New York. But now, when his behavior has blown up in his face, de Blasio suddenly cries out: "We all need to come together, we all need to cool off."

No we don't, Bill. You are the one who messed up. You are the one who is responsible. And, now, you are the one who is in trouble. Shame on you for trying to involve other people in your guilt. It is not the case that voices of extremism on both the Right and the Left need to fall silent. It is only the voices on the Left that have been spewing their hatred and they are the ones that need to be silenced.