American Angst

Right now our country is filled with angst, sorrow and anger. We are a nation in pain. I hurt so much for my country that I cannot even truly express it even in writing. I love my country. And that means every color of person living in it.

I have been watching as much news as I can tolerate. I can only take so much, though. Some people sit with it on 24/7. I can’t. It just makes me feel so defeated. I am not putting my head in the sand and hiding from the atrocious acts that are happening, but I am limiting my viewing of it.

I am glad that I watched a Facebook live last night. Well, let me re-phrase that…I am glad I was aware that one of my friends in Birmingham, AL was attacked. I was not glad to see that attack on the air and not know if he was ok for a while. That was scary. I was panicked and filled with anger and anxiety and fear to not know what was going on with my friend. To not know if he was beaten to death in the streets. He was there doing his job; he’s a reporter. The mob turned on him and started beating the shit out of him. It is one thing when you see something on television that is horrific, but it is quite another when you know the people involved.

I do understand the anger and the rage at the death of George Floyd. I am angry as well. I even understand the protests because nothing was done immediately. And there’s still cops that haven’t been arrested. And I don’t believe the autopsy results. But the violence and destruction hasn’t necessarily been about George Floyd or any other deaths. It has been people just trying to take the spotlight away from his death. And it needs to stop. People are getting hurt unnecessarily. Mr. Floyd’s brother has requested that it stop.

I want justice for all of the deaths that have occurred and I will shout that from the rooftops. I have argued with family members about it. I have argued about why the black community is so angry and have family completely angry with me about my position. But I will continue with my beliefs and my position because I believe that strongly. But I will not support violence that hurts other people or property. At first, I got the initial property damage because the initial rage needed to be dealt with. But now I believe that common sense and decency should prevail.

Please look at what is going on and see that there are people that do care. Yes, I am white, but I am someone who cares. I truly care. I want justice. Not for only George Floyd. I want it for Ahmaude Aubery and Breonna Taylor and everyone else unjustly killed.

I want justice. But just as they were innocent, I don’t want other innocent people to suffer because of the sins of other people. It wasn’t fair for George, Ahmaude or Breonna and it isn’t fair to anyone else.

Justifying & Repeating Vicious Cycles

I have seen on social media so often the memes about “Karen” this and that. Yeah, it can be amusing with the various situations. But I am betting Karen hates seeing her name used all the time as a derogatory term. She didn’t asked to be named that. And she possibly didn’t do anything to get all the negative attention to her name.

I read someone’s post tonight about how white women should just suck it up because various cultures have dealt with it through the years and now it was their turn to be treated like shit. A part of me gets that. Another part of me sees that as just an excuse to be retaliatory and spiteful. It’s a justification for repeating a negative behavior.

A quote from Dr. King says, “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” As you can see, he was against revenge, aggression and retaliation.

I don’t agree with how people have behaved in the past. But I also don’t agree with how people are behaving in the present. If we want a better future, we need to behave that way now.

We teach others by our behavior. If you teach your children that it is ok to say derogatory things to another race, they will do that. What does that do? It keeps the races divided. It perpetuates that hate. Healing will never come that way. And while the Civil Rights Movement was years ago, we are still fighting it today because people do what they know. And what many know (of all colors) is hate. Or at the very minimum, disrespect.

We must break the cycles in order to move forward to healing and a better society. It’s a daunting task. But it’s the only way to complete the dream that Dr. King had. He did not dream of the constant bickering and hatefulness that we have still today. He believed we could do better. If we can’t do better or refuse to do better, the man who fought so valiantly died in vain.

Do better. Watch what you say. Whatever your skin color is, stop being derogatory towards others because of theirs. The only race you should think of anyone is the human race.