We are always obsessed with figuring out what the right thing to do is in any given situation.

When a person is killed by police, that right thing becomes even more fraught. When the killing looks like murder and we can see it with our own eyes? Well…you get it.

We want to know what to do. Because we feel the need to do something. Share the video or not. Protest or not.

The problem is not the desire to do the right thing. Reasonable people can defend either.

The problem is thinking there is a right thing to do other than changing the system.

That very system which encourages the violence, defends the violence, and gives officers the words to avoid punishment for violence.

It really is hard to admit. Given that reality? There is no “right thing” for you and me to do.

It is right to rage and to pray and to love and to show mercy and hope and organize. It is right to cry and refuse to watch. It is right to reach out to friends and to listen.

It is right to do a lot of things we don’t want to do.

What isn’t right is ensuring this injustice continues and saying “there is nothing we can do.”

While there are hundreds of things you and I can do, only politicians pass laws. Only police departments change practices. And only judges can choose to stop helping police avoid charges.

What none of us can do right now is change the whole system by ourselves. And those I’ve just listed could change everything overnight.

When we clearly know what’s wrong, we must recognize where responsibility really lies.