Dear British friends, you don't have to pick a team in the US culture wars.

What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

I will point out that if you condemned rioting and looting last summer, you should condemn it now.

I will further point out that if you are condemning rioting and looting now, you should have condemned it last summer. There is still time to do so.

I will point out that it is not consistent to give a free pass to your own team just because you believe it to be axiomatic that 'rioting is the voice of the unheard'. Other people feel unheard too. Perhaps there would be less rioting if there were more listening.

This has ramifications for the SoMe / free speech debate. It is my own view that speech should not be policed by social media giants. Not because people don't say dumb, dubious & dangerous things, but because of the Streisand effect. If you try to shut it down, it gains traction.

This is not an attempt to find a mushy middle way, nor to make a virtue of lily-livered centrism; but to recognise that right and wrong are transcendent truths that are not coterminous with your politics.