Written by Dan Sadler   

The murder of reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27 and wounding of Vicki Gardner, the head of the local chamber of commerce by Vester Lee Flanagan II, aka Bryce Williams in Smith Mountain Lake, Va. is a tragedy. The suicide of Mr. Flanagan is also a tragedy!

From these tragedies sprung a bright light of hope, for me, a 68 year old White guy. I see a connection I have never seen before. This violence is not a white person perpetrating death on innocents. This is collective white supremacy in denial perpetuating death and violence 150 years after the Civil War! Mr. Flanagan was Black and the victims were White.

Mr. Flanagan's history has been portrayed as that of an angry, even rage-filled man. His employment history is flagged with him being fired more than once for his temper and angry behavior. In punitive response to Mr. Flanagan's past behavior, he was cast aside, removed from his employment community. There appears to be no record of Mr. Flanagan being given compassionate care and consideration for him to resolve his anger demons.

Since before the Civil War, slavery made Black people expendable commodities. That collective community attitude hides in the shadows of our society in 2015. It is like the unseen elephant in the living room of every White household in America.

The murders are the predictable outcome of yet another person of color not getting what he deserved. While the news and social media focus on the egregious murder and wounded victims in sympathy, the perpetrator is focused on with outrage.

Where was the compassionate care and intervention of the community for Mr. Flanagan long before the tragic events that unfolded in Smith Mountain Lake, Va., live on TV from station WDBJ7 in the early morning of August 26, 2015? The vast majority of the population has absorbed the heinous acts of violence and death over recent time with cries for gun control and other knee jerk reactions out of sense of frustration and powerlessness of a problem looking for a solution.

While lacking mental healthcare, among many other salves that have been repeatedly mentioned, the core cause of the problem facing us is the lack of community discussion and ownership for perpetuating and enabling these sad events. The core cause is that we as a country are not engaged in the discussion of how to help the violence prone long before tragedy ends lives.

We are a divided country. We argue about gun control, economics (income disparity), job quality, job availability and whole host of other issues. However, we don't engage in meaningful conversation that connects the dots between the issues of the Civil War, Civil Rights and violence in America.

This conversation needs to be about the compassionate needs of all human beings to be valued by the entire American community. When one of our community regions experience trauma inflicted by Mother Nature we, as a Nation, pitch in to help heal the wounds and rebuild lives. However, when individual's experience the trauma of their own inadequacies, handicaps (seen as personal failures), we shun the individual, especially persons of Color. Those lucky enough to be able to purchase remedies with societal currency get care and help. People of Color are not predominantly wealthy with money and property. Most people of Color struggle on the boundary between poverty and middle class existence. So do a significant majority of White people. However, people of Color are, in America, punished with biased and racial inequality from birth. Where was the Community of American response to help Mr. Flanagan?