Assuaging Our Guilt?

Where do I start?  How can I telescope an entire lifetime of the American Experience in one lowly blog post?  Even more to the point, why do I want to?

A.D. 2020, so far, may go down in history as the year without a break.  The year without fun.  The year of fear.  We have grown so accustomed to the status quo that, when something happens to mess that up, we get...well...uncivilized.

I'm going somewhere with this, so please bear with me.
I was in high school from 1961-1965, and in college in IL from 1965-1969.
If you know anything at all about those times in history, you know that a lot was going on during my formative years:  the Cold War with Russia; the Bay of Pigs invasion; the Cuban missile crisis; the Civil Rights Movement; the Vietnam conflict; political assassinations including the President; anti-war protests everywhere; race riots; the military draft lotteries; hippies; free love; the drug generation (overshadowed later); father/son conflicts in homes.  Just to name a few.  What I'm trying to say is that nothing that is going on in the 2020 world is new, including the pandemic.  The point is that almost an entire generation has passed since we, as a nation, last dealt with the issues, so it all seems emergent in the moment.

When soldiers came back from Vietnam, either at the end of term of service or the end of the conflict, there were no parades to welcome them home.  I think many vets felt neglected.  Some were spat on as baby-killers.  They had trouble transitioning back into civilian life because no one understood or supported sending American men--many of whom were draftees and had no choice-- to die in the jungles to save a small country in Southeast Asia from Communism.  (My own military father who served in WWII and Korea called Vietnam vets "crybabies" because he was of the generation that believed you did what you did not for the thanks you would get, but for the security of your own home and family without expecting anything in return.  But that's another post.)

Although it took awhile, America collectively saw the error of its ways.  Now, any veteran--in or out of uniform--is a hero.  "Thank you for your service" has become the mantra du jour.  Many military folk, like my father, made the service their career, but I venture to say that just as many enlisted for a 2-3-year stint for the benefits, then went home.  And many enlist (like my own brother) because they've screwed up in life and really didn't have any other respectable way out of the mess they created.  I don't want to paint veterans with a broad brush because I know better, but some of the people we are thanking for the rest of their lives for their two years of service are some of the nastiest sons of bitches on the planet; yet it's good Public Relations for places to honor veterans with discounts, free drinks, free food, etc.  OoRah!  I'm not taking away the honor that our veterans deserve; only saying that the pendulum swings both ways.

First responders have also now become the recipients of our undying gratitude, which they always should have had.  But let's get real for a moment, shouldn't every workaday person be hailed for what they do to keep us connected?  Teachers in American public education have taken a bad rap over the last 30 years.  Now suddenly they are heroes because parents have had to teach their own kids at home due to the pandemic.  Every single American signs up to do what they do by way of employment.  You aren't a hero for doing your job.  Even people who do something heroic that isn't in their job description will declare that they only did what any person should do.  Yes!

But I digress.  Shift gears here, to my college days during the MLK years of peaceful demonstrations for civil rights, often turned violent when police responded with tear gas, dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and arrests. When the public focus was on the mistreatment of people of color (POC), suddenly it was the popular thing for white students to have a black friend on campus.  It's happening now, too.  Right where you live.  People are trying to sympathize with rhetoric, just as I am with this blog post.  As much as you want to prove that you aren't racist by reaching out to black businesses and black families, you don't get it.  If you are white, you are already a racist, no matter how well you treat POC or how much you identify with your black brothers and sisters, because you are part of the majority race around which our whole system of life is based.  You were born white, in the same way your neighbors were born black.  Neither they nor you can help that.  The question now becomes how to change the system of racial inequality due to the accident of birth.

Adopting a Negro (the actual term for the black race that even MLK used, so don't hate me) is tokenism.  "I have a black friend, so you can't call me racist!"  Yeah, I can.  You surely know how your black brothers and sisters are being treated.  What are you doing about it?

I was raised in a white world, in white neighborhoods through no fault of my own, but I have come to know discrimination when I see it.  I'm pretty sure black folk won't get free drinks or meals just because they're black, like the veterans do.  I'm pretty sure they know that the attention they are getting right now is momentary.  It's happened before.  I'm also 100% sure that the POC among us don't want to be your special "project" to give them the rights that they should already have, by law.  If you have to ask what "they" want, look to your own values.  What do YOU want?  God don't make no junk!  I'm pretty sure that POC would love just to be able to live their lives, as white people do, without fear of being profiled, followed, pulled over, detained, or killed. 

The dialogue goes beyond racial discrimination.
How hard do we have to work to accept our brothers and sisters of the LGBTQ community?
How far into the Scriptures do you think you need to dig to find "Love your neighbor as you love yourself"?  "Feed my sheep"?  "Treat others as you want to be treated?"  "He who is without sin cast the first stone?"

Obviously, I'm not a POC.  There are no POC around me, but I'll be damned if I will be silent while anyone is suffering for reasons out of their control.

(Signed)  Just another bleeding-heart liberal "snowflake" who believes that America has failed in its promises.