Thursday, September 28, 2017

A Divided Society

I'm not even sure where to begin with this, except to say that we are a divided society, and becoming more divided every day.  It's not just the racial divide, but a divide based on ideology.  And this division has become violent and hateful; not just a difference of opinion.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s when it was clear that there was racial inequality.  To me, this inequality was more to do with a lack of respect and a lack of opportunity, and not so much a lack of equal outcome.  People were willing to make the sacrifices and hard work to get a better life, but they just weren't allowed to have those opportunity.  Dr. King spoke of being judged by character and not by color.  We all came to believe that this was a noble goal that every American should want.  and we did want it.

Fast forward a couple of decades and we actually had achieved a lot of that.  More people of color had entered the ranks of the middle class, and even rich.  Television didn't only depict people of color as pathetic or as criminal.  There were role models on television (and in movies) that were people of color.  These were role models for any kid, not just kids of color.  It was truly a big step forward from the goal spoken of by Dr. King.

But the problem with this is that politicians like having division.  It's much easier for them to be elected and stay elected if they can convince people that they are victims and that someone else is the enemy; and that the politician (or political party) is their only protection.
Never mind that the politicians promising to make things better, have done nothing for the poor in decades.  Matters for the poor have gotten worse.  But it's easier for politicians to get elected on division, than it is for them to actually solve some problems.  Politicians are lazy.  It was predictable as to the path they would take to maintain power.

I don't like writing about this, but I feel that I must because so many other people are saying things in anger, and it's just getting worse.  No one is looking at the big picture and looking for an end-goal that will actually solve the problems.
The fact is, as far as racial matters, division is worse than it has been in my lifetime.  Not only are the strides made since the 1970s gone, but it's worse than before I was even born.  This is horrible, but no one is talking about it.  They're just lashing out against the last thing the "other side" said when they were lashing out against what they call "the other side".  Both sides are doing this and it just gets worse.

For the record, almost everyone that I know that is white, cares nothing about race.  Certainly, they didn't prior to the atmosphere in the last decade when all the progress disappeared and we started going backwards.
People really don't care about race.  The proof is in the number of black entertainers on television now that "all" Americans know and love.  We enjoy the movies of Denzel Washington, Samuel J. Jackson, Danny Glover, and others.  I remember seeing "The Equalizer" and thoroughly enjoying it.  I remember seeing the TV series, which starred a white actor, and it was an awesome tv show, but Denzel Washington played the role naturally.  He played it so well, no one would question that he wasn't natural for the part.  Race really didn't enter into the picture.

And almost everyone loves Steve Harvey.  He's funny.  He has common sense opinions on a lot of topics common to American families.

But politicians have pushed the race card because its easy to get people to believe you're on "their side" if there are actually "sides".
And the news media isn't helping with their seemingly endless hunt for sensational stories.  And if they can't find one, they will make one.  I'm remembering a case in 2012 when two white guys drove around north Tulsa shooting indiscriminately at black people.  They killed several and injured others.  There was immediate outrage in the community.  News outlets from all over the country flew to Tulsa the next day to cover this story.  But what story they actually published had already been written before they even got their plain tickets.
Tulsa citizens identified these guys and they were turned in and arrested in less than 48 hours, yet the news media didn't cover that as much as they wanted to paint a picture of racial division.  The truth is that people turned these guys in.  White people turned them in.  They did it because it was the right thing to do.  They did it because they were good people, but to listen to the news media, Tulsa is full of racists.
Stories like this are reported from all over the country.  And although I'm sure racists are out there and that they need to be stopped, the truth is that majority of people are trying to do the right thing.  But the news media would have you believe that there is more and more division.  So the division we see now, is caused because of that perception created by the news media to sell advertising with their sensationalism, rather than doing the right thing, which would be a more upbeat story following a tragic shooting, but the upbeat story wouldn't sell as much advertising.

I recently read a great article by Walter Williams, in which he cites the "Welfare State" as the main culprit for why black young people aren't progressing economically.  You read this article and give it fair consideration, it makes some uncomfortable conclusions for black men in this matter; but Walter can do that since he is black.  I suspect that if I wrote that, or anyone not black, in today's political climate, they would receive a serious backlash, if not outright violence.

As far as athletes taking a knee during the national anthem, no matter what they say, the fact is that this is disrespect.  It is disrespect for what the flag stands for, and what the nation has struggled for.  People aren't perfect and neither in the nation, but things were getting better.  If there is division now, we need to step back and look at the big picture and figure out why.  This didn't just happen overnight.

If athletes want to protest, I think they should be able to do so, but when you insult the flag, you are insulting a significant part of the society, and this will just cause more division.  There are certainly more constructive ways to bring attention to the problem, than just making the problem worse and then complaining because its getting worse.

The national anthem was one of the few things left in our society that had unity.  We were Americans.  and now, the Left have taken that away from us too.  Soon, there wont be anything left that unites our society.  We'll be irrevocably divided.

Another point of division is the political ethnic division, which is being created, again, by political leaders.  They think that this "tribalism" is a good thing because people of different ethnic backgrounds get to express their pride.  However, it would be much more comfortable for people to be united under one banner, and still maintain their ethnic pride.  That's not mutually exclusive, but political leaders have convince people that it is.

I know our country has done things wrong, or stood by while wrong things were happening.  But it's not exclusive to the United States.  And its not exclusive to one race either.  That fact is that this is strong trait in the human race.   Human beings do horrible things to other human beings, or they sit silently and let it happen.  It's all the same, and despite what politicians might want to make you think, "all" human beings are guilty, not just one particle segment.

I would hope that we could come together as human beings and work towards unity, rather than insulting each other over differences.  Is that too much to ask for?