I try not to get political online, but the events in Charlottesville are haunting me.
Honestly, racism should not be political. It’s not a political issue, but rather a moral one that goes to the very heart of what America stands for. Either all men are created equal, or they are not.
I cannot believe that in 2017, we are still fighting Nazis.
What haunts me about Charlottesville is not just the brazenness of the Nazis, but their age. These were not the literally “old” South hiding behind their hoods. These were young men in Polo shirts boldly showing their faces as they shouted for genocide.
There is strong implicit racial bias in pretty much everything in America. This is something that needs to change, but it is a different topic from this post. From this implicit bias, many people have ingrained prejudices, believing stereotypes and lies about others. For most of us, though, these prejudices don’t flare up into outright, genocidal hatred.
So what pushes these people over the edge? Where are they being taught this vile mindset? We blame certain mosques and religious leaders for radicalizing Muslim youth, but are there equivalents here in America? We already know the names of some of the white nationalist “imams” radicalizing our youth—David Duke, Richard Spencer. Who else is poisoning our American youth? Is it simply in the home, a proud “heritage” passed from father to son, or are they getting this dreck from a larger, more structured entity?
Perhaps the vast majority of these people have something in them that makes them feel deficient in some way–most of us do. Perhaps with these people, someone found them and twisted the knife in their wound, opening it wider, then told them their deficiency wasn’t their fault, that these OTHER people were at fault. And these wounded people were so desperate to believe that they weren’t deficient in the way they feared that they believed the rhetoric and instead became deficient on a whole other level.
Why do I feel certain that there was someone in their lives that taught them this vile ideology? Because it is absolutely clear that hate is LEARNED. My daughter has been in school for 5 years now, and I can tell you with certainty that these young kids DON’T CARE about skin color. It means nothing to them—they’re just friends.
Adults often claim to be “colorblind” when it comes to race. While this is not accurate—anyone raised in the USA has been acculturated to the racism here—what those adults mean is that they are aware of the implicit biases that pervade all of our thinking here and try not to let them influence their actions and judgments.
Young kids my daughter’s age truly are colorblind. Why? Because they haven’t learned that skin color is used as a criteria for judgment. They haven’t learned the prejudices, the stereotypes, and the lies. They judge each person as an individual, just take them as they come.
Hate is absolutely and unequivocally learned. So we need to find the education centers and shut them down. Equality and acceptance can be taught in its place. It is the easier mindset to teach, since it is the natural state of mind in early childhood.
The white supremacists marching in Charlottesville make me sick. The murder of Heather Heyer at the hands of Nazis on American soil brought me to tears. We Americans stand at a crossroads today. We need to decide who we are as a country.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” ~ Declaration of Independence, 1776
The Nazis and KKK in Charlottesville and across the USA do not find these truths “self-evident”. If you do, then stand up, speak out, be counted—and teach equality in word and deed.
Hate has no place here.
Goodbye to Sonja: A Cosmic Sendoff
Sometimes life doesn’t happen the way you expect. A couple of weeks ago, my family went up to Long Island to visit family. On the way up, we had lunch with my aunt Sonja, spending several pleasant hours with her before heading farther out on the island.
We had several perfect days with my Aunt D on the island. She’ll be 89 this week, and has health issues, but she’s still a sharp, strong lady in every way that counts. Naturally, though, we worry about how much longer she will be with us.
So when we got the call from New York the next week, we were shocked to hear that Sonja had passed away. We had known of several health concerns she’d had over the winter, as well as ongoing pain from knee and hip replacement surgery, but she had seemed okay when we saw her.
So this past Sunday and Monday, we gathered to say goodbye to my aunt Sonja. She loved car racing, traveling all over the circuit with my Uncle Edward and her daughter. My aunt was always fashionable and put-together, not a hair out of place. She filled her glass with Pinot Grigio and the room with her smile and laughter. Her wanderlust was epic–she wanted to fly off to someplace new as soon as she came home.
But as far as she might roam, her heart was always with her family. When she lost her husband 30 years ago, she made it on her own. But lightning struck twice, and she found a second partner to adventure through life with, a man who stood steadfast to the end.
The treasure of Sonja’s heart was her daughter, who shared her mother’s roaming spirit. Although her own adventures kept her away often, she and Sonja remained close, and their love will never die.
Our unexpected goodbye to Sonja occurred on the date of the eclipse–a cosmic sendoff if ever there was one. As a cousin said, it seemed only fitting for a woman whose nickname was “Sunny”.
Godspeed, Sonja. We are so glad we got to see you one last time. We will miss you.