History in our time. · 7:47pm Jun 5th, 2020
I am many things, I am a son, an author, a college graduate, a man born in the 90s when the world was undergoing great change.
But, I am also the son of a Hispanic, the cousin of not one but two African Americans, I am a man raised on the ideals that all life is sacred, that injustice must be fought against, that bullies are bad, and that American Democracy is the greatest most ambitious experiment of all time.
And while I do not wish to be political here, on a website in which I enjoy posting stories about colorful equines....
Oh, wait, most of my stories are about fighting injustice, so I guess this is just par for the course for me.
As of late I am seeing that great experiment fail, as a direct result or perhaps even the end result of systemic problems. Problems both in our culture, and the ideologies born and inbred in so many of us, problems that stem from the idea that to guard our freedom we must sacrifice much of it. To guard against the infringement of our free speech, we must thus allow hate speech. To protect our freedom of assembly and protest, we must thus accept the possibility of violence from the police and federal agents. To be protected against crime and bodily harm, we must accept and allow a police force that profiles, harms, and sometimes outright kills with impunity the citizens they are sworn to protect based upon the color of their skin.
I think, no I believe these ideas to be wrong. Apathy, especially in the face of violence, is wrong. Acceptance of a system that fails to protect all it's citizens, is wrong. The idea that the color of your skin makes you somehow less, or makes you somehow more prone to acts of violence/vandalism/fraud/crime in general is abhorrent and yes it is wrong.
I am a very egalitarian sort of person, not to the point at which I believe all should be equal (Seriously, look how that worked out for Starlight), but in the fact that the mark and measure of a society is measured in how it treats the most impoverished and most disadvantaged of it's citizens. To extend on that, I believe a society should treat all it's citizens as equal in the eyes of the law. Skin color, background, gender, religion, and ideology (with the understanding that hate speech is not acceptable). And we are failing this as a society and culture. We claim to be the land of the free, yet we still shackle and entire part of our population to the stereotype that they are less than those of fairer skin, and in being less more prone to break the laws that we have set up to protect all of us.
The society that does not protect it's members is not a society worth living in, and must be changed.
And so we have found ourselves at the crossroads, the moment in our lives in which history is made. We have, at last, gathered together and stood up and proclaimed that enough is enough. And while I do not, and shall never, condone violence and destruction of property, I know that such things will happen. That contents under pressure explode, and in doing so tear asunder everything around it. Our society was under pressure, and now it has exploded, and may yet continue to explode with how the "leadership" of this once great nation has decided to take up that canister and shake, and shake, and shake until once more it explodes.
In the end, all that needs be said is; Black Lives Matter. And until this fact is recognized, and established, we cannot move forward as a free society.
And to anyone who does not agree with this point, I welcome your discourse, so long as it is respectful, or if you so desire your departure from following me and my stories.
I shall end this blog with a quote by a man far more eloquent than I. A man who sat in the highest office of the land many years ago, and who did what our President refuses, or perhaps seems totally unable , to do.
I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Hoping for the best for all of you over there. May the insanity begin to recede and clearer minds prevail.
Being a bit of an older individual who remembers ‘72 and ‘91, I must say that as much as I hope that lessons will be learnt and acted on, if these lessons get lost every 20 to 30 years in America then I fear I hope in vain.