Discrimination is running rampant in our society, and it's being perpetrated by many who believe that they are actually fighting against it. It's like watching a dog, but instead of chasing its tail, its dragging itself backward in a circle by it. If it only understood that it was the cause of its own grief, all it would have to do is let go. So at the risk of a few scraped knuckles, I'm going to attempt to pry open the jaw a little.
As Collin Kaepernick makes his way back into the headlines, I am reminded of a pair of socks that he once wore depicting police officers as pigs. So here we have a man who is touted by many as a model of "social justice" in America (whatever that is) actively showing discrimination against and demonizing the other side, thus provoking more people toward anger at the police. HE is your "social justice" leader? Good luck with that one.
When I was a kid, we learned that you should not discriminate against people. This message seems perfectly innocuous, but I believe it might be slightly misguided advice. The problem with telling people not to discriminate against a person is like telling them not to think of a hippopotamus. We are pretty much saying, "see that _____ over there? Don't assume that he's just like all the other ____'s." I'll leave it to you to fill those in. That's an obvious problem, but that's what has lead us to the point we are at today. The solution is to change our thinking from avoiding individual discrimination to avoiding group discrimination.
This is a good time to make one vitally important distinction. We must be able to celebrate diversity and the differences among us. I have always been way more interested in cultures and people who were not like me than those who were because I find that I learn so much more from their perspectives. I love ethnic foods, music, literature, etc... We must be able to celebrate the differences among us and be proud of what makes us unique. That's what makes America's tapestry so vibrant. But we need some Oxyclean, because these colors are fading, not from the sun, but from the mildew and mold of the cellar.
We can do better. We have to start by recognizing this one simple, yet pivotal point. If we cannot understand this then all that we have fought for, all of the wars, fire hoses, dogs, tears, bondage marks, will be for nothing. We will have wasted the efforts of all of those people who came before us and sacrificed so much for us to have what we have today. We will throw all of that away because we are being taught to hate each other. We need to turn on those who preach hate, not with hate, but with love, and show them the better way forward is together, not apart. So what's the point already...!?
It is this - people are responsible only for what they do.
It seems like such a simple concept, but it is not how we live our lives anymore. If a police officer commits a heinous act, then he committed a heinous act. If other people were complicit in such an act or helped cover it up then they are just as responsible and equally detestable. But unless they are of the previously mentioned, no other police officer has anything to do with that act. I don't care if they work in the same precinct. Another cop in that precinct was responding to a domestic violence call at the time and has nothing to do with that incident. Yet the media, Colin Kaepernick, and the Progressive machine will have you believe that somehow every cop in America is to blame for this. This is what the media does. They encourage hate and we eat it up like goldfish, gorging ourselves to death on their lies.
Black lives matter. No kidding. The only part that I would disagree with is that we call lives black or white. A life has no color.
So what's the bottom line? We need to judge people based on what THEY alone do. We can't judge people based on occupation, income, hobbies, skin color, health or lack thereof. We can't say that "cops" do such and such or "black people" do this and that. I know people who would call themselves black. But just remember that this contributes to collectivism. If you want to know how the Nazis gained so much support in a country that was not particularly racist, read Erik Larson's book, In the Garden of Beasts. I'm not bringing up Nazis to shock anyone, but it's a good example of what happens when we stop seeing individuals and start seeing members of groups.
- Anthony Battaglia
Link to the book here
Please leave your thoughts, I would love to know your opinion on the matter!
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