Our ever present difficulty with race is reflected in police shootings, campus protests, the black lives matter movement. The white response from those older than millenials is largely lacking empathy or downright racist. "All lives matter" is a statement that simply says "I negate your right to highlight anything you perceive as my racsim, even if it may threaten your life."
Our police continue to march towards militarization. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts are gone, replaced by armored soldiers in SWAT gear carrying assault rifles and shotguns. I guess we're not in Mayberry anymore.
We are anti immigration, even for refugees fleeing horrific poverty and violence. Even for children.
We continue to drop bombs and deploy drone strikes throughout the middle east. People die. Sometimes our targets. Sometimes not. Collateral damage. Ebola breaks out in Africa. The American impulse? Close the border!! Doctors who go to help are just stupid. They can't come back.
On immigration, if they aren't stealing our jobs (the ones citizens wouldn't take without unionizing or fighting for improve wages and conditions), they must be rapists and criminals...and some, I assume, are good people. When we could link (specifically) latin american immigration to ebola, or terrorism, we leapt at the chance, despite the fact that there was never a shred of real evidence.
Meanwhile on foreign policy, 300,000 Iraqis and tens of thousands more of largely innocent people have died and will die based on our continued manipulation and interventions in the region for our ongoing geopolitical energy strategy.
For those of you who don't know, Russia's interest in keeping Assad in power is the construction of a pipeline to Europe that they want to control with their Assad puppet. Our interest in ousting Assad is we want our friends and allies (our Saudi Sunni Wahabbist) friends to control the pipeline.
Turkey also has an unsung part to play. They too, would like an Assad regime change as they would also have a stake in the pipeline. Thats why their bombs for Isis keep falling on Kurds, and why so much of ISIS oil is purchased by them..and why ISIS fighters have been treated in Turkish hospitals.
In case you didn't know, Turkey is a part of NATO.
Its interesting to me that we are turning innocent Syrian refugees away from our border, and so many people went crazy over a treaty with IRAN, when fifteen of the nineteen plotters of 9/11 were Saudi citizens, and Saudi Arabia bankrolls and exports Islamic extremism globally. Their princes get to go to American Universities...but I guess if you have oil and money, we'll overlook the color of your skin and your religion. Saudi Arabia gets a US crony oil pass.
On the one hand, ISIS fighting Assad is in the west's interests. On the other, ISIS is a terrorist group. ISIS wouldn't even exist if it hadn't been for our misguided invasion of Iraq and the disbanding of the Iraqi army. So you can begin to understand our difficulty (and Russia's) in pretending to fight ISIS when the reality is it's all about Syrian regime change, or opposing it.
If you can examine this and come away with the impression that we are some kind of shining city on the hill, I admire your myopia.
Based on the data we have, we are killing more than 100 people for every one westerner killed in terrorism OR in war. I'm sure some of you are saying "good" as you read this. Many of those people are women and children. Some are just old men. Some are fathers. Most were people just caught in the middle between extremists and the west. Keep saying good. I'm sure it helps your soul.
For the past seventy years we have continuously meddled in the middle east, either by meddling in governments, through direct or indirect military interventions, or through proxy campaigns by our regional allies or puppets. Saddam was one of those, once. Remember the Iran/Iraq war? Bin Laden was too. Remember the Afghan defeat of the Soviets? He was an American hero back then.
All this blood on our hands for fossil fuels. The same fossil fuels that enrich those who control them. The same fossil fuels that are destroying our planet. The fossil fuels that enrich those who pay the lobbyists who fund the superpacs ....well, you get the idea. The world will be carpeted in skulls, and still we will drill for oil and fight over it.
I don't expect everyone to read up on all of this and to be horrified at what we do in the name of maintaining dominance over the global energy supply. If you haven't figured that out by now, you never will.
I do expect people to have empathy. To have a soul. To see the darkness in their own hearts and have the courage to reject it. I expect people to see a father holding his sons drowned body and think, "there but for the grace of God go I".
I expect people hearing about an ebola outbreak wanting to do everything to stop the suffering, and not react in panic, demanding that non existent flights from Africa be halted.
I at least expect our leaders, and news organizations, to try to rally the best in us, and not to turn us into cowards by feeding us misinformation and pandering to our basest prejudice and fear.
I expect people seeing child refugees fleeing from south america, child refugees fleeing gang violence, horrific poverty, and a drug trade (which largely serves an American consumer) as the victims they are - and not "ebola carriers" or potential middle east terrorists.
In case you're wondering, it was our politicians and news organizations that helped to create that impression, without one fact.
I expect people seeing what has happened to create the Syrian refugee situation, and to see those refugees, fleeing with their children, dying on the way, drowning in the mediterranean, and walking over open country as the victims they are, and to respond with the basic humanity and empathy we should have.
I expect us to recognize when others shame us. FRANCE was the country attacked - and they are taking in THREE TIMES THE REFUGEES WE ARE. Next time they disagree with one of our asshat schemes for an invasion, maybe we should listen instead of renaming french fries.
I expect us to see when our liberties are being abridged, when the inclusive nature of our society is being abbrogated, and when our public services, like the police, are doing more oppressing than serving and protecting.
All of these behaviors are a reflection of our national soul. Our attitudes as a whole reflect who we are and who we choose to be. We are allowing the absolute worst in us to be put on full display, before the entire world. When one of our major parties, not some fringe skinhead movement, KKK, or far right independent movement, is talking about building walls, mass deportations, forced identification programs...we have a problem.
The horrible truth about Germany and the rise of the third Reich is not a testament to the evil or some special quality of Germans at the time. It is that the third Reich can rise anywhere hatred and intolerance come to rule. When love and compassion dies. When our empathy for our fellow man is eclipsed by our fear and our greed. When our institutions pander to our fear and loathing of each other, to xenophobia.
When cameras and increased reporting by citizens demonstrate the extent to which police have become a tool enforcing institutionalized racism, and assault becomes an acceptable approach for enforcement we have a problem. When SWAT team deployments grow 20X over ten years, you have to ask why.
We live in a democracy. Police serve and do the will of the people they serve and protect, not the will of some dictator or fascist government. So any attack on the police is ultimately an attack on the will of the people.
Equally, when we give the police a pass for abusive behaviors, directed at any particular group, it is a reflection of the will of the people. The police are the enforcers of the collective will of our society.
If the people as a majority are intolerant of racist behaviors by the police, or excessive force, or unequal application of the law, then the police force will ultimately reflect that.
Of course the reverse is also true. If we make it okay to give white kids a pass on minor drug offenses, but arrest black kids. If we watch different enforcement of the law based on race and excuse it or do nothing..if we can't be bothered to even have a trial when there is a question of wrongful death, or even collect data to understand the scope of the problem, then that too is a reflection of the will of the people.
My point is that the way police behave doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens because we support it actively or through passive agreement with their actions. Healing issues of race doesn't start and end with the police or any of our government institutions. It starts with white people looking in the mirror and acknowledging their racism.
If the people as a majority are intolerant of racist behaviors by the police, or excessive force, or unequal application of the law, then the police force will ultimately reflect that.
Of course the reverse is also true. If we make it okay to give white kids a pass on minor drug offenses, but arrest black kids. If we watch different enforcement of the law based on race and excuse it or do nothing..if we can't be bothered to even have a trial when there is a question of wrongful death, or even collect data to understand the scope of the problem, then that too is a reflection of the will of the people.
My point is that the way police behave doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens because we support it actively or through passive agreement with their actions. Healing issues of race doesn't start and end with the police or any of our government institutions. It starts with white people looking in the mirror and acknowledging their racism.
A better marriage doesn't happen when a husband can say "well, I don't beat her anymore". Improvements in a culture or a relationship with longstanding divides take years of effort, self awareness, and progress. It will also take patience, compassion, love and understanding to get there without continuing to kill each other, and so it is with all people.
They say that this is a Christian country. Would that this were so. I don't believe any of the sentiments we express in our media or our politics, and increasingly on social media reflect that.
I believe our problems as a people and a nation are much better reflected by a story from people that predated us in this land.
An old man was teaching his son how to grow to be a good man. As they sat together, the old man said,
They say that this is a Christian country. Would that this were so. I don't believe any of the sentiments we express in our media or our politics, and increasingly on social media reflect that.
I believe our problems as a people and a nation are much better reflected by a story from people that predated us in this land.
An old man was teaching his son how to grow to be a good man. As they sat together, the old man said,
‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’
As people should be careful about which wolf they feed...so should nations.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’
As people should be careful about which wolf they feed...so should nations.
