When Reality Strikes Too Close to Home

As we approach Christmas, a time when Christians are supposed to remember the salvation of their souls by a merciful God who sent his Son to earth to atone for our sins it seems kind of ironic the most progressive and liberal among us are now being confronted by their own choices.

Recently, a killer broke into the home of Clarence Avant and killed his wife, Jacqueline Avant.  Ms. Avant, who at 81 was a long-time Philanthropist and supporter of liberal causes.  Also attacked were Droit Kemsley, a star from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and Terrance J, a host from BET were both targeted by “flash mob” robbers.  It seems crime is beginning to affect even the rich and isolated of Beverly Hills, or as Oprah Winfrey, also known as a progressive who likes to give things away, says: "it has “shaken the laws of the universe.”

Crime and violence are not supposed to directly affect those who can afford their own security, who support the release of violent felons back into their neighborhoods, or who fund causes, where felons are the good guys and cops, are the enemy.  Those "good guys and gals" are supposed to stay where they belong and prey on those who also live in those areas, leaving the rich to feel good about helping society.

As Ann Althouse^[1] points out radical leadership is concerned enough to say “They're trying to move us backward,' said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. 'We don't want to move backward; we want to move forward... We need to think about what kind of economic desperation actually creates property crime and how do we get people out of that state... How do we create livable wage jobs? How do we create affordable housing?'"  All great ideas until those rich liberals are actually expected to make choices that may affect their own standards of living.

The problem with all these movements is no one is really willing or able to address how dependence on the government is destroying the essential building blocks of society.  When these building blocks are gone, society will fail and we will have to start over.  The first block is a family.  Not a family unit, but a real family where there is a mother, a father, children who are taught common values by their parents and aren’t just turned into wards of the state.  The second block is a community where all the members share common values of hope (for a future better than today), respect (for the rights of others), and value for themselves and those around them.  The final building block is a trust for a standard of laws that are blind to the color of skin, gender, and the wealth or power (or lack) of the accused.

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[1] https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/12/crews-of-burglars-publicly-smashing.html

I Wonder What He'd Think?

As we remember Dr. King this Monday, I wonder what he would think of us as a Nation, as we approach the 46^th anniversary of his assassination in Memphis?  He struggled against the real apartheid that existed in America, and labored to achieve equality of treatment for people of color.  These conditions were obvious in the South, but existed with subtlety throughout the nation.

There are a few words from his speech, given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in 1963 that will be celebrated and remembered by all.  We will all remember the phrase “I have a dream…” where he shares his vision for a South where intolerance and injustice are long forgotten memories, and where our nation will truly live up to its creed that “all men are created equal.”

But his 1963 speech was much deeper than just the inspiration from those words.  As a minister he spoke to his audience, composed mostly of the blacks that had come to voice their dissent with the status quo, to fight for change and the rights of full citizenship.  I would like to take other, lessor remembered, paragraphs from this speech and ask you to think about them for a brief time.

“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.”

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

In these past 46 years the nation has continued to transform, sometimes for the better and other times not.  The 1960’s were a decade of change and transformation with the rise of the civil rights movement to national prominence, and the beginnings of an anti-war movement that would ultimately lead to the messy end of US involvement in the Vietnam conflict.  It was a time where my generation was coming of age, and the veterans of WWII were becoming the leaders of industry and the nation.

So here we are in 2014, as a new generation comes of age, and my generation is now being replaced as the leaders of industry and the nation.  Have we, his audience on that hot August day, helped him achieve his dream or have we like our fathers continued on the path of a nation divided?  It is easy to blame others; we do it all the time.  That worthless so-and-so in Congress, those darn Democrats, that arrogant President, the pig-headed Republicans, illegal aliens, welfare, the 1%, etc., the list is endless.  We have so many others we can blame we stop looking in the mirror at our choices and ourselves. 

We are America, a nation of individuals each with his or her own mind.  Society reflects who we are, and what we tolerate or do not tolerate.  Some would have us believe the problems we see come from big business, big government, the media, the rich, the poor, the religious right, the liberal left, the uneducated, the over-educated, the elite, the masses, or some other outside influence.   It seems to me, if we each have our own mind then it is up to us as individuals to decide the America we want. Do we continue to accept those who take polarizing positions to tear apart this nation or do we as individuals make a personal choice to stop the polarization?  Do we continue to encourage violence or do we advocate for humanity?  To we accuse those with whom we disagree to be racists or some other term, or do we consider their rights and opinions to be as important as our own?  Finally, do we make a simple choice as Dr. King asked of his audience to help make America free or do we continue to blame others?

What is Equality?

I was reminded today that somepeople feel victimized when they are not selected for promotion or tenured positions at rates they believe equal that of their male peers.  It took me back to my early days in the Air Force when I heard similar complaints by a minority.  Officers who were not afforded opportunity to command, and in turn were promoted at a lower rate then their peers.  While it would be easy to believe this was just another manifestation of racial bias, I am referring to a discrimination that had nothing to do with the color of a man’s skin, but rather the shape of the crest on his wings.  At the time the argument was public law forbid anyone but a pilot from commanding a flying squadron.  Navigators were second-class airmen not capable of commanding combat units in the Air Force.  As in all discrimination it took a number of events to change and there was resistance along the way, but as with the integration of blacks or women, it did.  I am sure we will see a similar change as we incorporate the skills and service of today’s newly recognized minorities.

But that is not what I want to talk about; it is about how those affected deal with the issues and climate before them.  What I saw from my peers were individuals taking one of three approaches to the restrictions we lived under.  Some accepted their lot in life.  They would grumble about the unfairness of the system, but make no effort to demonstrate they were better than those they flew with.  Others would rail against the restrictions to a point they would eventually separate from the service complaining they were treated unfairly.  Finally, others would go quietly about being the best officers and airmen they could with the expectation their hard work would be recognized and rewarded. 

I look back on my career and I have to admit I had tremendous fun.  I didn’t start off too strong, I was happy just to be flying.  But about the time I was a mid-level Captain I came to realize I could compete with anyone.  I never really got the first choice in my assignments, but I always got the best assignment for me.  For example, I wanted to move to Europe and the AF sent me to Japan.  I wanted to stay in Special Operations, and the AF sent me to instruct in Navigator School.  I wanted to come back to the 8^th SOS and ended up in a specialized planning group.  But over the course of my career I learned to build teams, lead men and woman; never make excuses for my performance, or wonder why I was where I was.  I never worried about how I ranked against my peers; I just did the best I was capable of at whatever job I was given.  All of this has played out to make me who I am today.  I think more people would be happier if they would learn to make the most of their choices and worry less about what was going on with their peers.

Now back to what started this.  It is funny the hugely liberal academic establishment goes to such length to maintain their status quo, yet at the same time rail about how society needs to change to conform to what they are teaching their students.  How in our cloistered institutions of higher learning do we actually force the idea of equality of opportunity so that promotion is truly based on performance and not social networking? 

What separates us all from equality is natural selection.  Some are smarter, stronger, politically astute, or more charismatic than others, like it or not that is true and inescapable.  Should everyone have an equal chance to be what they want?  Assuming equal ability it is easy to say yes, but we are never completely equal in life so what is the right answer?  

My one piece of advice to anyone who would listen is; life (or work) is a puzzle those who figure out how to make the pieces fit together succeed.  Those who don’t -- complain about how unfair the system is.  Learn to be a problem solver.

Modern Education and Our Future

Norcross Georgia Homework Assignments Anger Parents.

A other day I came across the above article about how some elementary teachers had attempted to link their math assignments with a social studies class they had taught on American Slavery.  In looking at the questions they posed to the students the teachers reflected either a complete lack of reasonable judgment or worse, a stereotypical Southern bigotry.  Since Norcross appears to be an upscale community northeast of Atlanta, for the moment lets assume the teachers were just stupid and not atypical bigots.

Today’s news has the community up in arms and calling for the dismissal of the teachers.  Certainly a plus for them when compared with time honored Southern tradition of lynching those people you don’t care for.  But I would like to write about what this incident brings out in us, and what if anything, we will do to change.  Not about whether Norcross should follow or abandon its time honored traditions. As I do from time to time I posted the article on a social media network and was somewhat surprised by some of the responses.

My first question -- Are the qualities of prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry inevitable human traits, and if they are how do we limit their impact on our society, and if not how do we begin the process of removing them from our nature?  As I look around and study history I find very little evidence to suggest humans have ever lived without prejudice and bias against others outside their group, we have unlimited examples of mans intolerance of opposing views.  Bigoted behavior can be found in every society I am aware of.  So on the surface it appears these qualities are prevalent traits, but where do they come from?  Surely they are not there from some genetic quality are they? Are we born with a prejudice gene?  No, I think they are learned behaviors, passed father to son, mother to daughter, and adult to child, as part of the maturing process.  Children see and hear what their parents do so often they internalize those qualities as their own, unless there is some compelling event that breaks that chain.

Within our nation we have had waves of immigration, and each wave brought about new problems we as a society had to work through.  Whether the English, French, Irish, Germans, Italian, Norse, East European, Asian, Latino, African or Middle Eastern; each has caused a shift in our culture and were discriminated against until they are assimilated into the fabric of our nation.  Some assimilate quickly, they learn the nations language, they blend in with community they settle in, marrying outside their historical group, etc.  Others do not, they maintain their home country’s culture, language, social links, or there are physical differences that separate them and make assimilation harder.  But each group has had to or still deals with discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice.  I’ve purposely avoided identification of the religious groups but they too have experienced this same problem of bigotry, which is, in a way, quite funny when you consider this nation was founded by Europeans seeking religious freedom.

So I come back to my question, how do we limit the impact of this prejudice and bigotry on our society?  Do we follow a path where we never discuss the problem for fear of hurting someone’s feelings, or do we lay it on the table and teach people there is a problem we have to deal with?  For me it seems obvious we have to talk about it, because if we shutter it away it festers until it boils over.  It is like Aunt Elsie’s drinking problem, it will just sit there until she dies of cirrhosis of the liver unless we intervene.  But what about children who may be subjected to this bigotry and abuse and hurt by it, how do we protect them?  Seems like a good question, but the real concern is do we benefit them if we do?

If bigotry exists and we can’t eradicate it from society with the wave of a wand then don’t we owe it to the victims to teach them how best to deal with this evil?  If we shelter them, at what point do we let them become adults responsible and capable of dealing with life’s problems on their own?  It is painful for a loving and concerned adult see someone you love hurt.  But hurt in life is inevitable, it is how we deal with it, and how we teach our loved ones to deal with it that offers our society a chance to grow out of petty emotions like hate.  If the children are protected and sheltered from all this hate, then when they are on their own who will intervene on their behalf?  Isn’t that one of the problems we see today where so many believe it is the governments responsibility to make up for their choices?  Don’t mistake this for a position advocating that bigotry and discrimination should be tolerated, where it exists it must be addressed through the civil and criminal process, but I am saying that children should not be sheltered from this process, they should be loved by those who love them, and taught that bigotry exists and how to stand up for themselves.  To do less will set them up for failure in life.  The true victims will be the children who have parents who don’t provide the love and support they need and react to these issues with hate and violence of their own.  That is a problem I don’t know how we address, as it does not provide progress towards acceptance, but just perpetuates the problem.  “Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.’” (Matthew 18: verse 21 and 22 (RSV))

So now back to the issue of education, what message do we send our children when we take localized teacher stupidity and blow it into a full fledged national firestorm where all the Al Sharpton’s and Rush Limbaugh’s of the world can spin this issue as if the world turned on coming out their way?  We loose a wonderful teaching opportunity and a chance to show our children how “civilized adults” handle mistakes, and we compound whatever simple concerns the children may have had into something much worse.