On Sunday Pittsburgh mourned the outbreaks of violence against police officers in this country, in a touching reminder that unity and peace can be powerful weapons in the fight against inequality and despair.

We seem to be skipping violently from one deadly incident to the next. A U.S. Army veteran kills five officers at what had been a peaceful rally in Dallas on July 7. On Sunday a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps ambushes and shoots six officers outside of a Baton Rouge convenience store, killing three.

“All I know is this must stop ... this divisiveness between our police and our citizens,” said Dallas Police Chief David Brown.

How do we achieve this remarkable feat? At least we know what not to do.

At the rally at Pittsburgh’s Freedom Corner, the Rev. Glenn G. Grayson, pastor of the Wesley Center AME Zion Church, said that a stop to the violence “will not come from the political arena ... ”

He is undeniably correct. The only antidote to extremism and violence is temperance in our words and actions, and that is sadly in short supply among America’s political elites.

It’s not hard to watch a floor speech in Congress or a stump speech on the campaign trail and see that our leaders — current and prospective — are talking past both the people they represent and those our system of government require they work with while in office.

That’s not to say they are the cause of this murderous moment, but they are clearly not the antidote. Neither is the anger which has galvanized communities across the country.

Anger over the murder of these police officers cannot be used to dismiss the despair and fear felt by communities mourning the killings of black men by white officers.

Anger over the killings of black men cannot be used to turn a blind eye to the crisis faced by law enforcement officers risking their lives to protect inflamed communities from increasingly unpredictable and deadly outbreaks of violence.

For many months now various “ ... Lives Matter” movements have asked us to think deeply about what it means to be a racial minority, police officer, or simply an innocent bystander in this country. Instead of opening their hearts, people chose to make a choice out of what could have been an exercise in unity. They chose to talk past the people to whom they should have been reaching out.

Rev. Grayson and the Rev. Victor Grigsby, chose Freedom Corner as the site of the Pittsburgh rally for a reason. It is a reminder of the Civil Rights Movement, which remains a testament to the power of peaceful resistance to injustice in this country.

There is no greater injustice in a free society than the taking of another person’s life. That injustice is blind to skin color, job title, political affiliation or age.

There is no side to take. We all have a vital interest in healing the damage that has led to this bloodshed.