May 31, 2020
Have you ever as a teenager or even as a child remember wondering if ‘X’ never happened how things would be different today. An example of something I pondered recently was if the outcome of the Vietnam War would be any different had President Kennedy never been assassinated and how would it be any different? This is just one example of the many philosophical conversations I have going on in my head with myself and if I am lucky, sometimes I can have these conversations with my friends.
The pendulum of democracy swung to its extreme with the brutal death of George Floyd by a rogue police officer on May 25, 2020. There was no reason for this rogue police officer to intentionally restrain him in a manner which he basically suffocated him to death. Equally disturbing, not one other police officer or civilian attempted to stop the rogue police officer by force or otherwise. It appears what was more important at the moment was to capture it on cell phone video and repurpose it against all police officers as being part of systematic racism against people of color. According to occupational census, there are over 750,000 sworn police officers – the odds all are like this one is highly unlikely. Regardless of the profession, the rogue employee, the one who profoundly did something unethical, illegal or worse killed someone will inevitably unfairly label the entire profession.
The majority making up our law enforcement are countless men and women who leave their families every day going to work with the fear of not knowing if their last “I love you” they said to a spouse, parent or a child will truly be their last one. These are the same individuals who attend to unimaginable crime scenes, keeping our communities safe, provide first response for assistance, remain active in our communities and providing law enforcement to all; in spite of being placed in diverse communities, political positions and various weather conditions.
This entire incident sparked a conflagration of changes to the foundation of our country. In the last few weeks, the media reported of peaceful protesting coupled with violent demonstrations, senseless looting and destruction of neighborhoods. Initially, the media reported the peaceful protests but soon after shifted paradigms of reporting to the criminal acts and the extremes of not so peaceful protesting filling the streets as being acceptable ways to show the community’s outrage and unwilling to tolerate the systematic racism against persons of color. The peaceful protesting opened community leaders and influencers to speak louder to get their escalated message out for action, resulting in further dividing our nation.
Those with appeared white privileged are being apologetic for stating their opinions publicly. With the light of bad publicity shining on these individuals, suddenly they became enlightened to the black lives matter movement. The very media which expressed their disdain for behaviors which didn’t parallel their core values and morals have begun to show those same individuals begin apologizing for their opinions, as if they lost their First Amendment right to have one. An example was made of Drew Brees when apologized for his very own opinion of him being adversely against of kneeling during the national anthem and US flag was wrong and came back stating he misunderstood the whole reason, but he too, has now he understands the history of why it was done and wishes to be forgiven for his biased beliefs. Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner became enlightened and understands Colin Kaepernick’s position and his right to take a knee to our sacred flag and national anthem and feels he is owed an apology for the misunderstanding of his position.
The influencers escalated their message resulting in numerous national corporations stating they will examine all current and future charitable giving guidelines. The ultimate goal of ensuring funds appearing to benefit a white privileged majority will be reevaluated to fairly redistribute funds to address capacity for the black lives movement and other minority priorities. These protestors alongside of influencers are asking for police departments to be defunded to allow for less systematic racial profiling in urban communities and to allow for less aggressive policing and more community-based enforcement. Whether politicians or community leaders, these influencers would like to see budgeted funds in the police departments be divested and reallocated in new sensitive safety measures, increase wages of the working poor, provide a mandated living wage for everyone, subsidize housing costs, improve schools and reducing the gap between the financial insecurities of the African-American community while redistributing the wealth of those who are white privileged. Both political parties poured countless funds into many of these aforementioned initiatives and almost all failed to realize any worthwhile sustained change in the critical outcome of improving the quality of life for those living in these communities.
Over the past decade, extreme measures have taken place to remove or even worse destroy, perceived objectionable portions of American history. Many believe items such as statues, parks, streets, municipalities and countless other items named after the very people who were part of history are being erased because they represent the glorification and idolization of our past and present tolerance of racism. If we begin to remove racist/objectionable parts of history are we bound to forget our past and bound to repeat it? At an alarming rate, municipalities are renaming parks and streets and removing statues from public parks and on a federal level there was discussion remove statues from the National Statuary Hall and to remove anything which may be perceived offensive. Will we go as far as renaming all things Washington since he was a slave owner? Will we rename all things Columbus because how he treated Native American Indians? Will we disguise our history and paint it to reflect only what is politically correct and reflect only what’s sensitive towards the black lives matter movement? Will we remove Thanksgiving for the national holiday as it doesn’t properly depict the joyful feast of Native American Indian and the white man? Will we professional sports teams who use Native American likeness in their logos and their names?
Associations of persons of color such as Black Caucasus, 100 Black Men, United Negro College Fund along with a myriad other associations implying of Black or African-Americans have been generally accepted by Americans. Initially, these were founded when our nation was providing but separate but equal access to persons of color to participate in society. Decades later these associations of person of color have proliferated and remained acceptable to have an exclusive or near majority of Black or African-American association of people. If the perceived white privileged created such exclusive associations based on race, a one-sided rally cry of discrimination and racism would most likely occur. Yet, the perceived white privileged for the most part remained silent in any cry of reverse discrimination or racism and did not create a maelstrom of protests and division amongst the people of our nation.
Throughout the nation, vast number of communities ignited very polarizing opinions on both sides of this issue with neither one being exclusively right or completely wrong. An inappropriate double entendre may be stated of this issue, it is simply neither black nor white, but it is gray. There is a lot of going on, it’s turbulent and it’s an awakening. Just because any one person or group doesn’t speak for/against anyone a side doesn’t necessarily mean they are part of the problem but are trying to comprehend and digest all that is going on. They see how the one spark caused such a conflagration and wonder how and if issues brought to the forefront will be addressed. There are critical questions to be asked as well as more complicated questions to ask, all of which have no simple answers as there is no definitive end. When does it end? How will this change effect the course of history as opposed to the previous attempts to move the needle on this issue? How is this going to change America as we know it for the better or for the worse?
Without hesitation, let’s bring forth the discussion to come up with measurable actions with realistic timelines for change. It’s going to take patience and perseverance to listen to views which may be painful to hear – but what is imperative to realize its ok to have a difference in opinion. We must not and cannot apologize for expressing a difference in opinion without fundamentally changing our country’s historical foundations. This is a hallmark of our US Constitution, which is not the only item our nation’s founding forefathers had great foresight in. If this continues, the test of our US Constitution and the principles of what this nation was founded on, will have failed not only its people but ultimately creating a tragic ending for what the United States was founded upon. The test of our democracy is a fragile one, but our nation depends upon a respect for the past and to learn from it, not remove it nor change history but change the present to make history for the next generation to see how Americans adapt to changing times and do so with fortitude and flexibility, just as the foundations of this country were founded upon.
The pendulum of democracy swung to its extreme with the brutal death of George Floyd by a rogue police officer on May 25, 2020. There was no reason for this rogue police officer to intentionally restrain him in a manner which he basically suffocated him to death. Equally disturbing, not one other police officer or civilian attempted to stop the rogue police officer by force or otherwise. It appears what was more important at the moment was to capture it on cell phone video and repurpose it against all police officers as being part of systematic racism against people of color. According to occupational census, there are over 750,000 sworn police officers – the odds all are like this one is highly unlikely. Regardless of the profession, the rogue employee, the one who profoundly did something unethical, illegal or worse killed someone will inevitably unfairly label the entire profession.
The majority making up our law enforcement are countless men and women who leave their families every day going to work with the fear of not knowing if their last “I love you” they said to a spouse, parent or a child will truly be their last one. These are the same individuals who attend to unimaginable crime scenes, keeping our communities safe, provide first response for assistance, remain active in our communities and providing law enforcement to all; in spite of being placed in diverse communities, political positions and various weather conditions.
This entire incident sparked a conflagration of changes to the foundation of our country. In the last few weeks, the media reported of peaceful protesting coupled with violent demonstrations, senseless looting and destruction of neighborhoods. Initially, the media reported the peaceful protests but soon after shifted paradigms of reporting to the criminal acts and the extremes of not so peaceful protesting filling the streets as being acceptable ways to show the community’s outrage and unwilling to tolerate the systematic racism against persons of color. The peaceful protesting opened community leaders and influencers to speak louder to get their escalated message out for action, resulting in further dividing our nation.
Those with appeared white privileged are being apologetic for stating their opinions publicly. With the light of bad publicity shining on these individuals, suddenly they became enlightened to the black lives matter movement. The very media which expressed their disdain for behaviors which didn’t parallel their core values and morals have begun to show those same individuals begin apologizing for their opinions, as if they lost their First Amendment right to have one. An example was made of Drew Brees when apologized for his very own opinion of him being adversely against of kneeling during the national anthem and US flag was wrong and came back stating he misunderstood the whole reason, but he too, has now he understands the history of why it was done and wishes to be forgiven for his biased beliefs. Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner became enlightened and understands Colin Kaepernick’s position and his right to take a knee to our sacred flag and national anthem and feels he is owed an apology for the misunderstanding of his position.
The influencers escalated their message resulting in numerous national corporations stating they will examine all current and future charitable giving guidelines. The ultimate goal of ensuring funds appearing to benefit a white privileged majority will be reevaluated to fairly redistribute funds to address capacity for the black lives movement and other minority priorities. These protestors alongside of influencers are asking for police departments to be defunded to allow for less systematic racial profiling in urban communities and to allow for less aggressive policing and more community-based enforcement. Whether politicians or community leaders, these influencers would like to see budgeted funds in the police departments be divested and reallocated in new sensitive safety measures, increase wages of the working poor, provide a mandated living wage for everyone, subsidize housing costs, improve schools and reducing the gap between the financial insecurities of the African-American community while redistributing the wealth of those who are white privileged. Both political parties poured countless funds into many of these aforementioned initiatives and almost all failed to realize any worthwhile sustained change in the critical outcome of improving the quality of life for those living in these communities.
Over the past decade, extreme measures have taken place to remove or even worse destroy, perceived objectionable portions of American history. Many believe items such as statues, parks, streets, municipalities and countless other items named after the very people who were part of history are being erased because they represent the glorification and idolization of our past and present tolerance of racism. If we begin to remove racist/objectionable parts of history are we bound to forget our past and bound to repeat it? At an alarming rate, municipalities are renaming parks and streets and removing statues from public parks and on a federal level there was discussion remove statues from the National Statuary Hall and to remove anything which may be perceived offensive. Will we go as far as renaming all things Washington since he was a slave owner? Will we rename all things Columbus because how he treated Native American Indians? Will we disguise our history and paint it to reflect only what is politically correct and reflect only what’s sensitive towards the black lives matter movement? Will we remove Thanksgiving for the national holiday as it doesn’t properly depict the joyful feast of Native American Indian and the white man? Will we professional sports teams who use Native American likeness in their logos and their names?
Associations of persons of color such as Black Caucasus, 100 Black Men, United Negro College Fund along with a myriad other associations implying of Black or African-Americans have been generally accepted by Americans. Initially, these were founded when our nation was providing but separate but equal access to persons of color to participate in society. Decades later these associations of person of color have proliferated and remained acceptable to have an exclusive or near majority of Black or African-American association of people. If the perceived white privileged created such exclusive associations based on race, a one-sided rally cry of discrimination and racism would most likely occur. Yet, the perceived white privileged for the most part remained silent in any cry of reverse discrimination or racism and did not create a maelstrom of protests and division amongst the people of our nation.
Throughout the nation, vast number of communities ignited very polarizing opinions on both sides of this issue with neither one being exclusively right or completely wrong. An inappropriate double entendre may be stated of this issue, it is simply neither black nor white, but it is gray. There is a lot of going on, it’s turbulent and it’s an awakening. Just because any one person or group doesn’t speak for/against anyone a side doesn’t necessarily mean they are part of the problem but are trying to comprehend and digest all that is going on. They see how the one spark caused such a conflagration and wonder how and if issues brought to the forefront will be addressed. There are critical questions to be asked as well as more complicated questions to ask, all of which have no simple answers as there is no definitive end. When does it end? How will this change effect the course of history as opposed to the previous attempts to move the needle on this issue? How is this going to change America as we know it for the better or for the worse?
Without hesitation, let’s bring forth the discussion to come up with measurable actions with realistic timelines for change. It’s going to take patience and perseverance to listen to views which may be painful to hear – but what is imperative to realize its ok to have a difference in opinion. We must not and cannot apologize for expressing a difference in opinion without fundamentally changing our country’s historical foundations. This is a hallmark of our US Constitution, which is not the only item our nation’s founding forefathers had great foresight in. If this continues, the test of our US Constitution and the principles of what this nation was founded on, will have failed not only its people but ultimately creating a tragic ending for what the United States was founded upon. The test of our democracy is a fragile one, but our nation depends upon a respect for the past and to learn from it, not remove it nor change history but change the present to make history for the next generation to see how Americans adapt to changing times and do so with fortitude and flexibility, just as the foundations of this country were founded upon.
Perhaps, just maybe things would be different if we listened when President Kennedy said, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” I am afraid if society keeps looking back in the rearview mirror to live our lives, it will crash any view of progress made. Ultimately, it will destroy any opportunity of looking forward to a future becoming better than its yesterdays.
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