Five months ago, our nation was made host to a virulent, deadly visitor, brought to this continent surreptitiously. A new virus, uncovered in China, unsparing in occurrence.
Now we are engaged in a great experiment, testing whether any nation with fearsome, monstrous divisions based on race and wealth, can survive in the face of such a disease. We have come to give our testimony while we still can, in an increasingly authoritarian environment. We do so to support the survival of all who participate in this society. We are writing not as people of wealth and privilege but as ordinary people, like the medical and public safety workers who gave their lives that this nation might live. As citizens of the world, we have an obligation to speak out. As citizens of the US, we have the right to do so.
We offer an independent viewpoint, having gained insight from American history – in this case, Black Wall Street/Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our perspective helps us better understand the exact nature of the problem the country now faces. Of course, in a larger sense, we know that monetary impacts pale in the face of human pain and suffering. This mandates a focus on the human, not the economic.
The world will not notice, nor remember, what is written by common people of limited means, without the ability to correct the current condition. Our goal is to simply suggest that this situation should not be used to argue for the inherent inferiority of those most impacted. We are dying at elevated rates not due to some ingrained defect. Rather, the defect resides in a racist, bigoted and biased system for the allocation of resources, including police and health care resources. This crisis offers an opportunity to correct this misallocation.
As an organization, Creative Investment Research has long been dedicated to this unfinished work. We call upon you, the reader, to insure that these deaths ultimately have meaning —and that democratic government, tasked with providing fairness and equity, will not cease to exist.