Let’s ignore the details — for a moment — of what has happened in the city of Ferguson from the day Michael Brown was shot until the decision of the grand jury not to indict Darren Wilson was announced. Let’s compress it into a singular event.

Essentially, that event seems to have thrown open this nation’s closet door. It’s the closet into which we have thrown all our racially charged skeletons for the sake of appearing tidy, clean, and welcoming to guests who may come to visit — or the nosy neighbors who might peer through open windows. It’s a closet that has been stuffed full and whose contents burst out as soon as that door cracked open. But the Event didn’t crack the closet door open; it violently flung it open and exposed our darkest secrets to a watching international audience.

Whether or not you believe that the Event was motivated by racial undertones or not, it has pulled back the covers to reveal a deep pain, anger, and mistrust that was conveniently pushed aside or ignored for a very long time.

It’s time for this House to have an honest, deep, rip-the-carpet-out, fix-the-bannister, get-rid-of-all-the-termites type of spring cleaning. Or else watch as this House crumbles from the inside.