My head just wrapped around something that has been bothering me ever since our country was turned upside down by the takeover of the GOP, the election of Donald Trump, and mass shootings at schools. I will present some strong reasons why I think I have cracked the egg.
Barack Obama represented everything that would change, for the white male ego, within the conservative hierarchy of American society. Why? He showed three things that weren’t acceptable behavior by the white male. Compassion, humility, and vulnerability.
Example one was his response to the Harvard professor’s, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., run in with the police where he was believed to be a burglar in his own home. As a black intellectual man this incident seemed ludicrous to him, and it had the capacity to escalate the race wars all over again. President Obama interceded into this volatile arena dowsing the fire with compassion for the police officer, humility instead of anger for his race, and vulnerability by reaching out his hand to both Gates and the police by having a sit down and a beer. The beer was genius, because it masked the attack on white malehood. But, it was step one.
The conservative white malehood was on notice. His world was being attacked and he did not like it one bit. No one could really define this phenomenon, but it was a feeling rocked to its core. Example two was the school shootings under President Obama’s watch where he had the audacity to cry in front of the nation and the world. Compassion, humility, and vulnerability. Compare those speeches to President Clinton’s in 1999 on the Columbine shooting and you see male behavior change. This is important for two reasons, first we are starting to underestimate the influence the Presidential presence represents, and second this shift did not come from a white male president, it came from a black one.
With this scenario, it’s not hard to see the rise of Donald Trump and racism. What has been his response to school shootings? Would you see emotion of any kind, other than anger? Does this represent the white conservative male ego? Hell yes! He makes them feel comfortable and back in their place of superiority.
Let’s talk guns. What does the gun represent to the conservative white male? You got it…his maleness, his member, his penis. What are you seeing today in this conservative community? Bigger guns, bigger trucks, and more blatant in your face racism by white males, eerily similar to the Jim Crow era. Now, let’s not leave out the women who stand by their men. Recently, you saw a young, pretty blond woman stand up for her right to carry at, none other than, Kent State University where the shooting of protestors during the Vietnam War happened. This is blatant, in your face, fight back for white rights. She received many marriage proposals from, you guessed it, conservative guys all a gaga. Think about it! This is clean porn for the conservative white male. She’s holding his….in adoration!
Let’s talk about aggressive police on video, let’s talk about aggressive, in your face racist attacks on immigrants. Let’s talk about black church burnings. Shall I go on…
Aaron Schlossberg is an aha moment. This man is a conservative white male, upper crust, educated, busy NYC lawyer who has been raging all through the city verbally attacking, what he assumes are illegal immigrants. He doesn’t fit the liberal stereotype of a southern, truck owning, uneducated bigot. Everyone is shocked. I am not. I’ve been seeing this a lot recently. White males with money, privilege, and education who see their macho world changing dramatically. We have a lot going on, folks! I can guarantee you Mr. Schlossberg was probably a guy who gawked at woman openly on the streets, possibly visited strip clubs, etc. Sorry, to be stereotypical here, but many times you have no choice. The world has changed dramatically around this type of guy and they are steaming mad, but really don’t know why.
We have a problem, US citizens! Until we acknowledge what is happening, figure out a way to convince the conservative white male his world is changing for the better, not the worse, we are on a collision course for war and devastation. Anger, personified in positions of power is not a good thing! I find myself angry a lot, too, these days.
So, this is more than just about race, this is more than just about school shootings. We can stop the school shootings when we convince these guys they have a place if they understand how to change, and that our children are much more important and worth their sacrifice. We can poor water on the fire over race by addressing difficult issues of inequality, that they continue to say don’t exist. We have to find a way for them to see it. Getting the conservative voices to listen, instead of feeling attacked is key here. I CLEARY don’t have the answers for how to do that, but we must dialog and find ways to honor this country’s good and it’s ugly bad and help all to understand we cannot do good without acknowledging the evils of the past and present. There are dramatic acknowledgements of inequality that must be accepted and understood by the conservative mind or it will have closed forever. They have a choice to adapt or attack. Right now they are on the attack, and no ability to open up to change.
We can’t do this until we can convince everyone that the amount of “slouches” in the world is so very small and doesn’t not represent any whole (compassion, humility, and vulnerability). Punishing the poor is never a good scenario and will never validate your view of how hard you have worked to get ahead (compassion, humility, and vulnerability). Depression is a huge deal for those that constantly face PTSD type living/survival lives because of disgustingly low wages. Their TV world never represents them anymore. That's a huge problem! We’ve got to find a way to stop the abuse of money addiction that feeds the beasts at the top. We’ve got to find a way to show them the amazing value of thinking of others, giving back to society as a great thing to be admired(compassion, humility, and vulnerability). I know…. sounding Pollyanna here. I’m a realist, and know it’s not going to be easy and we won’t get utopia. Somehow, we have to come together and figure this out. Please…….
I wish I had the ability of the black man who goes to KKK/racist meetings and talks to white angry men who really don’t know why they are doing what they do in anger. Or the guy, who at a protest, embraces the angry guy on the other side and says, “I love you, man!” I wish we had the ability to raise up men like these as heroes to emulate instead of wealthy, spoiled, privileged men who have had everything given to them to help them succeed. Their success is no more surprising than the sun rising.
Ok…time to find my flame-retardant suit!
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Friday, May 18, 2018
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only ." Charles Dickens opening of A Tale of Two Cities
Hmm....The greatness of these few sentences by Dickens is it's timelessness, and no more relevant than today. He was speaking of the French Revolution time via the two city views of Paris and London. Dickens only wrote two books of historical fiction, the other being the lesser known Barnaby Rudge, and this "history" part has been questioned by scholars. But, this article isn't about the book. It's about the timeless meaning in these very popular sentences through time periods. I doubt Dickens had any idea how popular the opening words of this work would be, nor the mutability of his writings. I have a love-hate relationship with Dickens, but I can say that with any great author I admire. Example: Michael Chabon Great authors become revered not only because of their prose, but because of their ability to engage the mind in personal meaning.
Why I chose this passage in Dickens work is it's timely resemblance to today. I believe Dickens wrote in a time where understanding what was happening in the world by the majority did not cross the paths of the elite minority, who could disavow it's existence. So, parallel to today under the current US administration, who have allowed a shady business man with no political experience, no moral experience, no military experience, and no common life experience, to not only come to power and be their figurehead, but to stay silent while he annihilates the global view of our entire country. Just so they could have their conservative moral way. If there is an Armageddon in our future, it was and is created and fueled by these religious, amoral carpetbaggers who have claimed religious piety while bleaching whiteness across their actions, cleansing their sins.
Stop and ask every church, synagogue, or any place of organized religious faith, if these values represent their moral founding/founders and you would probably find they do not. Yet, no religious entity is strongly apposing this movement within the republican party that claims allegiance, not to the flag, but to the moral judgment they claim in the name of white religious faith. Some will claim they do, but I do not see them standing together in "moral" outrage, which is needed. I don't expect the churches that they claim to represent will stand up and fight this. The past has proven that religious practice does more to demonize and radicalize than it does to embrace. You do not need to belong to a church to have faith. That statement alone makes evangelicalist cringe in horror.
It was the best of times....the Internet has exploded with many great things to offer. The greatest being access to knowledge, access to each other, and access to our own power. "With great power comes great responsibility" Spiderman. We made it through what should have been dubbed a great depression without major disasters to our economy, or so it seemed. We would find that to be a fallacy later as the economy recovered only for the 1% who regained their losses and then flourished to levels never before seen. No one is talking about the facts of wages. Document review jobs for lawyers used to stand around $100 an hour, now they pay around $30 an hour. UPS used to pay very decent wages for part time, exhausting, difficult manual mailing labor that helped many supplement income, and or rise above to driver, which also paid decently. That same part time job at UPS now pays minimum wage AND requires the employee to pay for labor union dues out of their minimum wage paycheck. Oh...they're nice enough to spread it out over a year. They also make this very hush, hush as you have to leave your cell phone and any other metal devices out of the room where all this information is laid out for you on documents you cannot take out of the facility.
I used to temp to fill gaps in my up and down pay as a freelance musician for years up until the early 2000's. Temp pay today is the same, or LESS, than I was making when I stopped. AND, I turned down tons of job offers from where I was temping. Employers used to value an Arts education knowing that trainability was very high. I knew many people who quit music and started on the ground being hired just on the value of knowing as an Artist they would be smart and mobile upward. That doesn't happen anymore. Job applications are ridiculously specific with years of experience required. No chances taken. And you can see how that's working out. Many manager positions are taken with people with no real people experience. But...I digress **the above tyraid is my own personal experience with no concrete data analysis to back it up. I leave that to the experts to delve into.
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.. Awwh...fools aplenty! Eradicate the fools by paying attention to the wisdom and it is tremendous! Independent journalism like Sarah Kendzior and the Young Turks, books from every direction in history, literature, philosophy, women's studies/rights, and gender. Authors in and out of the norm categories like Jill Lepore, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Michael Chabon, Jesmyn Ward, just to name a few. There is no greater time to read than now, and no greater time to stop and think for yourself! If you need a reading list just ask.
So...me being the eternal optimist pessimist, we are at a crossroads that can turn ugly or groundbreaking in it's development of personhood. If we all decide to identify as a "person" first as our category and leave our race, gender, and religion as secondary to that powerful word of identity, we have the greatest ability to heal the world's souls through that power of identification. We will fall time and time again, but we can be an empowered human race if we value "the person" in us all. I mean "ALL". No exceptions. A murderer is a murderer who is first and foremost a person. When we acknowledge that seemingly obvious identification we open up a lost soul to redemption and hope. This power alone places the responsibility of life squarely on the shoulders of community where it is currently thirsting for a birth. I'll shut up now.....
Thursday, May 10, 2018
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