What in the world is going on? People are out doing god knows what. Tearing this down, building new things, and yet we still remain. I have seen so many changes in my life. I have experienced so much of the changes in society. Most of those are over time. Unlike today where it changes quickly. I am just amazed at people. I feel no anger or remorse for the past, but I understand why some people do.
There are so many news stories and news outlets, it can be difficult to know what is true or not quite true. In the continuous news cycle we have, the story is often repeated rather than explored. I was taught about yellow journalism in school. Its an interesting concept. Today we call it spin. The deeper truth is it really doesn’t matter to most people. However, to some it is the only thing that matters. Many don’t realize the truth like the problems we want to solve are more complex and not black and white.
We have a spectrum of color across the truth. We deny want doesn’t serve us and praise the things that do. I find the truth is a sliding scale of narrative. Your truth is determined by your experience. Just as mine is determined by my experience. That is both the beauty and curse of the individual. When we take our case and cause into the limelight, we fail to start from a shared experience. We start from the point of danger. Its the same thing we all do. We all are ruled by our own prejudices. But we certainly don’t have to be controlled by it . Nor do we have to listen to it.
The simple and obvious point to start from is find the shared experience and then dialque from it. It is a fairly simple example. We were all born, grew up, attended some school somewhere, felt emotions, and formed ourselves. I tell my son that we should be divided between two categories in this country. US Citizens and those who aren’t. It isn’t about nationalism, but about having too many categories. It would give us a common starting point. In my eyes, we all have the exact same rights. Black, white, Asian, LGBTQ+, gender variants, and the new categories have exactly the same rights. No one more than any other.
I don’t care what bathroom you want to use, in the light of dusk they are still bathrooms. Should we have an argument that lasts years over it or just make bathrooms with one toilet, one sink, and one door? I would rather solve the problem than keep hearing about it. Does everyone have a right to be respected? Absolutely, but remember that fixing problems is a catalyst to that. We all fear change and what we don’t know, but that shouldn’t be a consideration. If we only rely on past experience, we can’t look forward.
I empathize with those who have experienced racism. It literally breaks my heart. No one should be harassed, beat, or be shot for there different skin color. No one should be dragged out of a car at gun point. I know this because it happened to me. Not because my skin color, but because my plate was from a different state. I was pulled out because I “made them nervous”. They questioned me about having a gun. They asked me why I was in that neighborhood. So, I have a little bit of the shared experience. People may say because I have not been discriminated based on skin color. I have been discriminated for economic reasons, family history, military service, and sometimes in the places I have lived for my skin color being different than the rest of the neighborhood.
I have experienced the isolation from that. I went to a very decent high school in a very affluent area as the poorest family. My stepfather was a hard working man who wanted the best education for us. Even if it cost him everything. Which in the end it did. Believe me, he said several times that he knew it. He is a great man, great human being, and he sacrificed for us. He has a lot of opinions that I don’t agree with, yet we can still discuss the issues. His views were shaped in the 50’s and 60’s when the world was different. Maybe we should all look at the source of our own basis.
Some people were forced to come here and do manual labor. They would be forced to pick cotton by hand, It is horrible that people had to endure it. This I know for the stories of my mother hand picking cotton for next to nothing as a child in the south. Yes, she is white. I grew up most of my life before high school in a single parent home. My mother worked several jobs to support us. She was no saint when it comes to being a nurturing mother. She was heavy handed and dealing with her own demons from her trauma.
My father and mother split when I was 4. I wouldn’t see him again until the state police sent me a picture and an interview. Most of my life I have had to figure things out by trial and error. I had little moral compass and did things to try and feel better. But it can be tough growing up without a father or the love of your mother. It is confusing with a step parent and rules after having to fend for yourself. It can certainly explain my many failed relationships. I like this gives me a little glimpse into the experience of many blacks in this country.
I think the only left we can do is go forward from this point. Finish tearing down the statues, disband the parts of government that aren’t color blind, and protest. When we are done with that, lets sit down and figure out the solutions to problems. Let’s fix our house first, then we can truly show the world what freedom means. And what freedom and liberty feel like. Quit screaming at each other. Slogans do nothing without actions. Actions do nothing without respect. Respect is American. We can figure this out when we have enough sense to talk to each other.
BeTheAdventureOfLife 