Speaking before the Boston Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey (D) said we must “seize the opportunity we have right now to build anew.”

“Yes,” Healey explained, “America is burning, but that’s how forests grow.”

Healey is also the co-chair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

Jeff Landry, her counterpart over at the Republican Attorneys General Association, disagreed strongly with Healey’s remarks. He said:

Maura Healey’s inflammatory rhetoric is part of the problem, not a solution. An AG is elected to uphold the rule of law and protect life and property, not to violate their oath and incite additional violence by inflaming emotions and condoning lawlessness. AG Healey has an obligation to quell fear, not incite further damage and destruction.

The wrongful death of any innocent life is a tragedy. That includes George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, and now the numerous law enforcement officers and business owners who have been killed or assaulted as a result of these riots and domestic terrorism. Criminal elements have infiltrated peaceful protests, and those individuals breaking the law must be held accountable.

Peaceful protests are one thing, but when far-left extremists and anarchists who hate America infiltrate those protests to create chaos in every major U.S. city, burning and plundering as they go, the opportunity is gone.

Does Healey not understand that what were intended to be peaceful protests have transformed into riots that left unchecked, could destroy America? Does she not comprehend that the objectives of the radicals and the agitators are very different from the goals of those who are protesting systemic racism in America? This is not a path to growth as Healey tells her listeners. It is a path to hatred, violence, death and misery.

Do Healey and the rest of the liberal elites think the rioters are their friends. Dan Bongino played a clip on his Wednesday podcast which showed a teenager giving the “thumbs up sign” to a rioter outside his window. Seconds later, an object shatters his window. “Hey,” the teenager yells, “I’m on your side.” Two or three more objects hit his windows and he repeats “I’m on your side.”

Guess what libs? They don’t care.

And contrary to the left’s failed narrative, it’s not white supremacists who are responsible for the riots. Even the Southern Poverty Law Center acknowledges that. Howard Graves, a research analyst who tracks white supremacist and other anti-government extremist groups at the SPLC, told The New York Times, “I have not seen any clear evidence that white supremacists or militiamen are masking up and going out to burn and loot.”

How will burning down buildings in our cities, looting local businesses, destroying livelihoods and throwing bricks at cops help improve the racial climate in America?

I’m reminded of the well-known fable, “The North Wind and the Sun.”

The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

“Let us agree,” said the Sun, “that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak.”

“Very well,” growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler’s body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun’s rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.

Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.

Can Ms. Healey guess who might represent the north wind? The domestic terrorists creating mayhem throughout our country will not prevail in this conflict. Eventually, they will be brought down by law enforcement and America will rebuild. In the meantime, the intended message of the peaceful protestors has been lost in the madness. They serve only as a shield for the thugs.

And those on the left, who applaud the violence and cheer on the perpetrators would do well to reflect on a quote from the late, great Martin Luther King Jr:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction … The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. (1963)

Wake up liberals.

Today in my address to the @bostonchamber, I spoke about how we must seize the opportunity we have right now to build anew in ways that rid us of the institutionalized racism that’s led to America burning today. pic.twitter.com/bJSXMahHyy

— Maura Healey (@maura_healey) June 2, 2020