A black man gets killed by a cop in Louisiana and then a black man gets killed by a cop in Minnesota and then five cops get killed by a black man in Texas.

It was a bad week for America and it has spawned more and more conversation about how divisive our country has become and how these are the worst of times. There is a popular line of thought that divisions have never been deeper nor has the country ever been more fractured.

You can forget the Civil War for a moment and just realize that it wasn’t all that long ago – during my lifetime – that America seemed irreparably torn at the seams.

I have lived through the brutality of the Civil Rights Movement, with lynchings and murders and riots with snarling dogs and billy clubs and thousands of people swarming the streets in pursuit of equal rights for all.

I have lived through the riots of the Vietnam war protests, complete with beatings and growling dogs and political posturing and a revolt of young people and deep divides between children and parents and tear gas, all in pursuit of peace.

I was in some of these demonstrations and I vividly remember the resounding noise of them – loud on both sides. I stood on the steps of UWM and led an appeal to thousands of students, calling for the university to be shut down. My picture was on the front page of the paper. I looked like some kind of crazed firebrand.

There are none of those demonstrations today. We get occasional protest marches, but nothing at all like the demonstrations just five decades ago. I think the reason that we all think America has gone to hell in a handbasket now is a simple one.

It’s social media and the Internet.

When I was a young man, it wasn’t until the newspaper came out or the news came on television in the evening that we knew what had been taking place. At night people gathered around television sets and watched the footage of the latest confrontations taking place around the country.

Now it takes only a second for everyone – not just in America but across the world – to know something has happened. We get words and video and audio and thousands of comments about an event moments after it happens.

And the same social media that informs also helps to activate further action. Back when demonstrations ripped this country apart, we used a telephone to call someone and that someone used a phone to call another person and, after a few days, we managed to get a few people together.

I am not one of those who blames the media for covering – even over-covering – news events. I don’t think that putting restrictions on the free flow of information is going to solve anything. Plus, there is no way to put this cat back in the bag.

The two things that mark worldwide communication now are the speed at which it travels and the virtual impossibility to determine what’s credible and what’s not.

Let’s use the Dallas shooting as an example.

Initial reports that were on the air announced that there were several shooters and that police had killed one of them while others were on the loose. And the networks showed a photo of one man who was a suspect.

These reports were aired while police still hid behind cars, unsure of where the bullets were coming from. They were instantaneously given credibility by being seen on CNN and Fox and ABC.

Dallas police tweeted, "This is one of our suspects. Please help us find him."

Turns out it was a guy named Mark Hughes who turned himself in to police and was released after half an hour. Hughes asked the Dallas police to apologize for circulating his photo but the police refused to do so.

That’s one of the biggest problems of all this high-speed communication. Once it’s out there, you can’t take it back. The rush to get things online before anybody else can, and frequently does, can make a horrible mess.

I’ve been guilty of rushing some things online and I know how harmful it can be.

The truth is that speed does kill, and the speed of social media makes things seem a lot worse and more widespread than they really are.

We don’t have huge riots or snarling dogs or lynchings or daily firebombings or crowds of thousands disrupting life.

It just seems that way.