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Former President George W. Bush Speaks Out on George Floyd Protests, Calls For 'Peace Rooted in Justice'

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“We have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen,” Bush wrote.
On Tuesday, former U. S. President George W. Bush released a statement sharing his and former first lady Laura Bush’s “anguish” over the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man whose death in police custody has sparked national protests and riots.
While the statement acknowledged a continuing legacy of institutionalized racism that denies black U. S. citizens justice in their own country, it also declared, “Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress.”
Ultimately his statement urged citizens, law enforcement and government officials to work towards “fairness and legitimacy of the legal system… [and] achieving justice for all,” noting, “There is a better way … [and] a peace rooted in justice.”
“Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country” his statement begins. “Yet we have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen… to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving.”
Stating that many African Americans, especially young men, are “continually harassed and threatened in their own country,” Bush said the death of Floyd raised a “long-overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society?”
“America’s greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity,” Bush wrote.

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