Americas principles are our strength. Its time to live up to them.

Healing and making progress on needed reforms in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officerbegins with listening to one another so we can work together for change.

But we must move beyond the rhetoric to get to the real. For us, that includes the reality that we come at todays challenges from very different places.One of us is the founder ofUrban Specialistsand thefirst gang specialist hired by Texasto negotiate peace among gang members in youth prisons.The other issenior vice president of Stand Together and a former prison guard.

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But what we have in common far outweighs our differences.

Look what happened when about 400 peoplecame togetherinDallas lastmonth when we kicked off what were calling the Heal America Tour. The participants brought radically differentexperiencesand viewpoints. We all started from the shared belief thatthe source of Americas strength its principle of liberty and justice for all is also the solution to its problems.Then we talked, and listened, and heard.

Omar Jahwar

Gatherings like this force uncomfortable conversations. And discomfort is part of the point. In no other way can we get to the heart of the matter and address the gap between the ideals and the reality. We do that by working to discoverwhat we fiercely agree on and what we believe in.

Mark Holden

We believe that as with any endeavor, some police officers, prosecutors, judges, and corrections officers honor their oaths of office and some do not.

We agree with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and that when injustices hold people back, America is the worse for it. The recent tragedies highlight how, when racism becomes institutionalized, public policies disproportionately harm minority communitieswith or without anintent to discriminateon the part of those enforcing the law.

Eliminating these injustices requires us to fully embrace our countrys foundational ideals of equal justice, inclusion, and empowerment, which have always been central to our progress as a people.

These shared beliefs are critical. Once people findcommon concerns, the exhausted majority who are not on either extreme can work to fix them.

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We have seen the power of people connecting to each others personal experiences and how that helped them discover common concerns and figure out how to work together. And we have experienced it ourselves.

And right now weneedadiversity of perspectives individuals willing to be candid with each other and to challenge their own assumptions to find innovative solutions to the problems confronting policing and criminal justice reform.Now it is up to each of us to make a difference in the urgent pursuit of equal justice and unite around the principles that will drive progress toward meaningful reform.

Omar Jahwaris founder of Urban Specialists and leads Course Correction Conversations for Stand Together, to bring diverse groups of people together to address injustice and heal after tragedy.Mark Holden, alongtime advocatefor criminal justice reform, issenior vice president of Stand Together.

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To eliminate injustices, look to America's foundational ideals and our shared beliefs - MinnPost