Opinion: America is on fire. Let’s stop arguing over the smoke.

Two Black men were recently found hanging from trees in Mississippi: Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a young college student at Delta State University, and Cory Zukatis, a 36-year-old unhoused man in Vicksburg. Law enforcement officials say they don’t suspect foul play at this time, but we can’t discount that these deaths are chilling reminders that the fight for justice in this country is far from over. And our communities are still navigating a climate steeped in fear, violence and historical trauma.

As we grieve these tragic losses, I think it’s also important that we widen our lens.

These tragedies didn’t happen in a vacuum. They occurred in a nation simmering with political hostility, where dangerous rhetoric spreads faster than truth and where acts of violence — whether born of ideology,