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When tragedy strikes, it can tear a community apart, or it can bring it together. But reconciliation and/or restoration cannot and will not begin if the tragedy isn’t even seen for what it is. The statements and reports by officials, whether they be the commander in chief or local PD, are a claim; when not made truthfully, they create chasms of confusion and hopelessness across America. But the people that stand to benefit or be endangered the most from these statements aren’t the authorities– it’s the communities that fall into the cracks. Balko and Parker’s frustrations begin with the tragedy, but they truly culminate at the moment when a public official approaches the opportunity to unify, squanders it, and persistently and violently rocks the public into a dark place of ambiguity.

By placing the significance on what’s not said through long blanks, Parker intends to illicit anger and cynicism simultaneously. The reader can feel the anticipation the nation felt. That clawing, climbing up to the hopeful standard, word by word, until you reach for a blank and plummet back down into the reality that too many people live in. When people in power only see “visions” of these events that statistically and historically burden the black community without at least giving them the nation’s ear, they further and further shatter the US and shove it’s citizens into the cracks away from any hope of a solution.