I've been complaining for years that America is getting increasingly mad and topsy-turvy.; that it has lost its moral compass, it's common identity, it's unifying values. The loss of a Christian ethos in America - even among the plurality of religions that comes with religious freedom - is devastating this nation. It used to be that the Judeo-Christian ethos was so pervasive, ran so deep into our roots, that even those who didn't go to church held the same moral code, believed similarly what was right vs what was wrong. It seeped into all of us by osmosis, and defined how we acted as a country. We as a nation were largely "watching the same movie", so to speak, about American ingenuity, elbow grease, baseball, and apple pie. Land of opportunity and justice. We interpreted reality in the same way. With the advent of the internet, and destructive policies, and the corrosive onslaught of intellectual elitism, this is changing... has changed. And now, enter 2020. We've reached a boiling point it seems.
The pandemic has touched every.single.person. in this nation, in some way. No one is immune to it's scope. So those who may not have taken the time or effort to engage in politics when it was merely an intellectual exercise suddenly have an opinion. A DEFINITE opinion. It used to be that what happened in a distant legislature largely didn't effect the person at a cellular level in an individual household. Yes, taxes might go up or down, but the day to day stuff didn't necessarily change much... go to work, take the kids to soccer, put food on the table. The American way of life - despite rhetoric - kept on largely the same despite who was in political power. The pandemic, or more accurately, the RESPONSE to the pandemic, has made the decisions in far off places become REAL. They effect me and mine, in very CONCRETE, LIFE-ALTERING WAYS. As such, there are no more unengaged people in this country. There are no more squishy, apathetic people. We all have an OPINION about this, because it has caused major disruptions in the life of every single human being in the nation.
And now, on top of this anxious and unsettling scenario, we have the specter of race riots, of looting, of violence, tearing our cities up, polarizing people even more. The charge of "racism" is being bandied about like mosquito spray. It's supposed to be the end-all-be-all of slurs. You're RACIST. America is RACIST. Wallow in THAT. Self-loathe yourself for THAT, America.
Someone on Facebook posted a meme that basically implied that violence was necessary to "make a change" on the issue of race. This is a well-meaning friend who has an African American granddaughter. I get why she is passionate about ending racism. She wants a world that treats her granddaughter with the dignity and respect that every human deserves. I'm not here to debate on to the extent that is or is not the world we currently live in. I do not see racism around me, but I am a middle-aged white woman in a rural part of the country, and am not qualified to speak of such things. I don't know what goes on in other places where I am not. I do know, however, that LEGALIZED racism no longer exists. It is no longer LEGAL to provide a "separate but equal" education. It is no longer LEGAL to deny someone the opportunity to work based on their skin color (in fact, it's now just the opposite, if you look at affirmative action). It is no longer LEGAL to force some groups to the back of the bus, or use a different water fountain, or deny service in your restaurant, based on the color of their skin. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s eradicated legalized racism in this country. And that movement, those people fighting for these changes back then, did their work peacefully. Dr. Martin Luther King insisted on the moral high-ground, used Gahndi and JESUS as role models. As he so famously said:
“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
That was the mind-set back when Dr. King was in charge of things. I have no idea who is "in charge" of Black Lives Matter, but this is definitively NOT the guiding principle now. There is shouting, and intimidating, and rioting, and looting, and anger, and legitimate HATE being spewed. Not by the people RESISTING change, but by those SEEKING change! Back then, the violence came from those who did not want equality, who did not tolerate the disruption of the status quo. Now, the violence comes first, and is being used as a purported INSTRUMENT to cause a change.
So that got me thinking. What is the end game? What do these people hope to accomplish? They say they want the end of racism. OK. But what does that concretely look like, in a very real sense? During the Civil Rights movement, there was the impetus to eradicate legalized racism in this country, and that goal was definitively achieved. NOW, the "systemic, implicit" racism that is so vilified... that's in hearts and minds. That's intrinsic to people, not extrinsic. Do you change hearts and minds through shouting? Demanding? Destroying livlihoods and cities? By making people feel unsafe? By defunding police??? THROUGH VIOLENCE? In what world does violence convert a human soul????? And where does it all end? When is the goal met? By what standard is all this violence going to STOP? It makes not one iota of logical sense to any rational person. It is an expression of anger, an emotion. It is not solutions-based. It is a tantrum of a two-year old. And it changes NOTHING. It makes it all WORSE.
Satan is working over-time these days, trying to make us fear one another, trying to make us hate one another. We are being manipulated as a nation, make no mistake about that. We are being whipped up and manipulated in very real, demonstrable ways. But I see you, Satan. The veil has been lifted. Your seeds of unrest and hate are trying to destroy this nation, trying to cause an implosion, trying to make us self-destruct. Because without the United States as a bastion of Judeo-Christian values to the world, as a light on a hill, it's so much easier to encase the entire world in darkness.
I refuse to FEAR. I refuse to HATE. Call me any name you want. I REFUSE.
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