To the Journal editor:

As I write this, the nation is again in the grip of a divisive national argument. This time over the police shooting of Adam Toledo in Chicago. Thirteen years old, being chased by police during a shots-fired complaint, shot dead by an officer while trying to surrender empty handed. I see the comments sections everywhere lit up with fury, Pro cop vs. Pro victim. I’ll say this now: This isn’t a productive conversation. It’s based on a seriously flawed premise: that there is a “Good Guy” and a “Bad Guy” here. There isn’t No Captain America, no Doctor Doom. There are no heroes or villains in the Adam Toledo case, just victims.

In real life, situations are rarely so simple. No reasonable person could justify Toledo’s actions that night. No reasonable person could justify shooting a minor who was trying to surrender.

Yet we are all doing just that. After generations of soundbyte media we, as a culture have lost the ability to see our issues as anything but a zero sum game. That’s is a tragedy of it’s own. It destroys our ability to understand the issues confronting us with compassion and reason alike.

And so the cycle continues without resolution, just another long argument in the comments section. It’s time that we address the truth about our world: That we have no heroes. And until we can see the world objectively, without the Hollywood and cable news filter, there will only be tragedy without solutions.