The build-up to the convention has been overshadowed by the highly controversial "legitimate rape" remarks made by Todd Atkin, a congressman from Missouri, and his subsequent refusal to quit his bid for re-election despite pressure from the party's leadership.
If Missouri or any other American state with similar conflicts – racial, religious, political, whatever – have any hope of healing, it lies with those who are serious and sturdy enough to ditch their petrified opinions, to embrace complexity and to absorb facts that make them uneasy.
Missouri doesn't show good reasons to keep it going.
Clearly, these divisions exist across America and sometimes flare up; Missouri is used to the fissures, but not to the flare-ups.
Relatives who have lost loved ones at the hands of UK police will stage a demonstration outside the US embassy in London in solidarity with the family and supporters of US teenager Michael Brown, shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
For a second night in a row, racially charged protests took place around the US after a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict a white policeman in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.
I remember he went on Oprah or Ellen and was talking about a little blonde girl who tried out in Missouri and I assumed that was me, so he was always a big supporter of me.
A dramatic spike in awareness of US police killings over the past year has put a spotlight on the use of lethal force by police and brought into sharp focus the actions of officers when confronting unarmed black men, such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City.
Only Missouri bucked the trend – it lethally injected 10 prisoners compared with just two the previous year, as it forged ahead with an aggressive new drive to carry out executions at a rate of almost one a month.
