Governor Northam’s words:

I think from my perspective, people are angry. They’re mad, and I guess an analogy if it’s OK that I would use as a physician who has been with families when they’ve lost their children. A lot of times well intended folks will come up and say ‘I understand what you’re going through, I feel your pain.’ Well, no you don’t. Because you’ve never walked in their shoes, you’ve never experienced what they’ve experiencing. And so perhaps I’m not the best one not talk about the pain that people are feeling…

I think we need to step back from the big picture, from the protesters, and certainly encourage them to be peaceful but I think the bigger challenge, the bigger message for people who look like me is to ask ourselves why? Why are they feeling this pain? And to listen, and when we listen, we learn, and then if our hearts are in the right place, as Del. McQuinn said, we can sit down at the table and in a civil manner move forward and take action to make our society better for our young folks and everybody that’s else in the world with us…

I think it’s fair to say that there are individuals out there who are exploiting the situation that we’re in. And for that, we regret that and ask them to take their energy and interest elsewhere.”

Translation: If we’re nice to them, they’ll be nice to us….. #Coexist !