Unbearable Blackness

There is a suffocating wind choking us almost daily now. It whistles through poor neighborhoods and posh suburbs and city streets and country lanes, a thick, odious sirocco filled with malevolence and meanness that scours away the facade of America as world builder and paragon of democracy. It leaves a deformity behind in our society that is ignored by many and suffered by too many more.

It is the unbearable blackness.

Unbearable, in that several hundred years of sable servitude's savagery was not erased by a continent-shaking war, nor all the legislation committed to reams of paper since. Not even as august a thing as a Constitution could hydraulically fracture out the deep wells of misbegotten bigotry buried so far down in the foundation of a nation. A few hundred, a few thousand years of gauging others by their tongues, their beliefs, and their skin, that pressure could not be released by so many pinpricks of the rough hide of a foreign-born nation.

Our European ancestors, wherever they went, saw the natives as "savages," because they were unaware of or unwilling to hear the words The Bible and absorb the sacrosanct belief that White Anglo-Saxon Protestants had been commanded by a swarthy prophet of the desert kingdom of the Israelites to go out and conquer the world that was rightfully theirs. New Testament churches driven by Old Testament zeal led to the corruption and conscription and dissolution of societies that had existed before Jesus set one foot upon the ground. They took the Savior's name, cloaked it in the God of Abraham's wrath and wrought conversion upon the "unenlightened."

That lust for the conversion of everything into a Christian kingdom overspread the Earth. Fed into its maw were tribes and villages and cities and creeds, to be converted into missions and cathedrals and gold and piety. And where the natives would not be pacified, they would be harnessed, and if that were too hard, exterminated. Commanded to "be fruitful and multiply," these European invaders took that as a tacit command to take what was needed to create God's kingdom there upon the ground and woe to those who stood before his host! If a Black body could be bent to serve the Lord, upright or upon their knees, so be it.

That has been the groundwork, that has been the fire, that has been the catalyst, that consumed all before it, left lands far and wide, barren and sere, removed of their joyous multitudes, now yoked to the plow of progress. With a the human landscape burnt and blasted, the winds could sweep up into a maelstrom, to plunge down upon the scattered children and suffer them further indignities.

Now we see it every day, almost. Darker skin thought cancerous, drawing the evil naturally down upon itself. Lady Macbeth wailed against a spot; now our brothers and sisters wail over the darkness of their skin, that attracts the fingers of death. The whitest among us act as if nothing is wrong, that they brought the stain upon themselves somehow, that their skin was always meant to be beneath the notice of Men. So many voices raised in Christian song on Sunday, spit epithets on Monday at the outrage of thousands of their Black countrymen beweeping the deaths of their brothers and sisters at the hands of White taskmasters thinly cloaked as purveyors of Law & Justice.

Even in our highest halls, those sent to govern instead throw fits when it appears a Black man is more competent, forthright, and knowledgeable than they. They curse The People for their progressiveness and seek to wound them at every turn, casting the orphan out on the street, failing to fill the bellies of hungry, denying the destitute refuge, even shunning those who fought so they might have the freedom to be petulant and peevish. They stammer and stamp their feet as the man duly elected to lead the nation succeeds despite their every impediment and roadblock and remains adored by a nation that not so long ago was on the brink of destruction.

This blackness is unbearable. That it suffocates the living with fear and hatred, that it pervades the souls of so many who claim to be the best of God's flock, that it is draped upon the bodies of too many who are gunned down in the street and left to die... it is a weight that cannot be withstood for much longer. The darkness of skin should not be the arbiter of human value. "All Men are created equal" it says & if we are to interpret that in the spirit it was meant, then no thing, no belief, no skin color, no sexual orientation, no language, no nationality should bar the individual from the Rights that are so inalienably theirs. No Black person should walk down the street with the thought in their mind that there is a target on their back and it is only a matter of time before the hunters come. It is wrong. It is unjust. It is un-American. And it is unbearable.

The Islamic Witch Trials

His name is Representative Peter King of New York, and while “representative” might be his title, it is certainly not a functional attribute of his, for he does not represent anything a law-abiding, Constitution-loving American would espouse. What he does represent is that underbelly of America that has become so prominent right now: the retooled and reinvigorated “My America, Love It or Leave It” crowd. He has taken the phobia of many toward Islam since September 11th, and turned it to his political advantage, preparing to hold hearing on the “radicalization” of Muslims in America. That anyone would pander to a constituency by invoking the horror of that day nearly ten years ago is reprehensible enough, but Representative King brings a special spin to this tale, given his support for the Irish Republican Army during its heyday decades ago. In that, at least it can be said that he personally knows some terrorists.

The High Cost Of 'Free' Speech

As is often noted, the right to free speech comes at a terrible cost -- to enable us to have our right to say what we will, in a reasonable and measured fashion, we must tolerate those who will have their right to say what they will, even in the most lurid and unseemly fashion. So it is, that we endure the mounting dissension and rising tide of intolerance toward the Islamic religion as we approach the anniversary of September 11th.

This wave of intolerance is not, however, some new strain developed over the issue of Al Qaeda's attack on the Twin Towers, but a mutation of a very old strain, that humanity carries with it everywhere it goes. In America, it can be traced back to a fear of a Catholic President taking orders from the Pope instead of the people. It can be traced further still, to immigrant groups coming to our shores, who would steal jobs from "real" Americans. Back even further, we see it in the fear of the slave being freed, sowing the destruction of the American way of life. We can trace it all the way to the mistrust of the native "savages," original inhabitants of North America, and their weird ways, contrary to the laws of God. And those seeds were brought by the original colonists, fleeing societies that did not want them around, for fear of contamination of their countries. Go back as far as you like in human history, and you can see the seeds planted and the crop of intolerance harvested in full measure in each succeeding generation.

For all the advance of humankind from primitive existence to technological domination of the globe, we continue to carry the seeds and sow them at every turn. It as if we feel we cannot be who we are without them. It is as if the dogma and destruction of the past is part of our DNA, not, as it truly is, a product of fevered imagination, over-hyped fear, and rampant bigotry. To some, there is no point in hoping for a change, because it has always been so. For others, they thrive only in the presence of this bitter crop, and would fight to keep it, to justify their view of the world.

Those who would picket the burials of the honored dead, claiming that we are paying the price for our wickedness, are harvesters of the crop. Those who would burn the Quran to send an incoherent message, are harvesters of the crop. Those who would deny their fellow Americans the right to have affordable health care, are harvesters of the crop. Those who would claim that the free practice of religion is valid only for their 'Christian' religion, are harvesters of the crop. Those who would deny a woman the right to determine what she will do with her body, are harvesters of the crop. Those who would deny same-sex couples the right to enjoy the fruits of lasting love and marriage, are harvesters of the crop.

America has spent decades now, planting a bumper crop of anti-intellectualism, ignorance, bigotry, and hatred. This goes far beyond the crops previously sown and reaped, for in an age when information is king and knowledge is everywhere, the stubborn denial of truth for the blinding light of belief shows no more sophisticated than our brethren two thousand years ago. For all our advances in technology, there have been few advances in community. Even the founding of the American nation did not bring about the salient changes in human behavior that could reasonably be said to have altered us and made us a singular nation. For while our Founding Fathers did their best to construct a foundation upon which to lay a new society, which allowed the individual to be as they are while being part of a larger community, the subsequent building upon that foundation has been haphazard, slapdash, and at time, has required things to be torn down and rebuilt.

Given the freedom to speak, that does not mean what you have to say automatically has value, especially where what you say is grounded in ignorance, and fear, and hatred. What Americans must do, now, is to speak up. The dialog is being monopolized by the narrow-minded and short-sighted; the great bulk of America is not so myopic or xenophobic. Decent people, strong-hearted people, we must rise up to challenge those who would pervert freedom and democracy to further their own self-serving ends, who would shape American traditions and values to prevent all Americans from sharing in the liberty they are guaranteed. Let our voices ring out, and let the true heart of America proclaim that we shall not tolerate intolerance and will not defend ignorance. It is time for the better angels of our nature to take the day.

Some Say By Fire

Fire can be capricious. It can heat you home... or burn it to the ground. It can provide light and warmth when camping... or reduce the forest to smoking ash. It can be used to cook our food... or to char the innocent into unrecognizability. It can drive away the night... or hasten its approach. What we do with it determines whether it will aid us, or consume us.

Fire has always been the weapon of choice to prove a point, usually that one group has control over another. It was the very first terror weapon, a raging, snarling monster capable of devouring everything that was precious to anyone. When turned from its pedestrian uses of heating and cooking and lighting, it was a formidable enforcer. And still is.

This is no doubt why, in fits of rage, crowds take to fire as an instrument of that rage. The movie stereotype of the villagers wielding pitchforks and torches is not far from the truth, for in our hearts, we know that to apply the power of fire to something is to erase the thing, to make a statement that we will not be controlled or frightened by it. And so, the mad scientist's creation is set ablaze... or a witch is cleansed... or books with contradictory knowledge are placed upon a pyre... or a family is forced to watch a cross burning on their lawn. Yes, fire is the instrument of our anger, and the symbol of the loss of control, for while fire may do our bidding, it is not so easily tamed, and can as easily set about its own work as do ours. To play with fire, is to play with imminent destruction.

Nero fiddles, Rome burns.

There is a movement to mark the next anniversary of September 11th, 2001, by burning copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, in protest. There is another movement scheduled for the next day, to burn the Rebel Flag, symbol of the Confederacy, to show certain elements in this country that we are not frightened of them. Suddenly, it is no longer the 21st Century, but the 17th Century, or perhaps the 11th; in any event, in a time for the possibility of communication and conversation, we are reduced to the age-old tactics, as if, somehow, the fire will cleanse rather than scar. What is to be gained in either case, save to inflame passions, to ramp up rhetoric, to reinforce the walls that stand between us? Nothing concrete can be gained by these actions; they are the extension of our primitive animal selves, not the enlightened and thinking species we can be.

If there is ever to be true progress for humanity toward something better, if we ever are to enjoy the fruits of liberty and freedom, then we have to put down the weapons and rein in the dogmas of the past. We must stop giving in to our animal passions, for down that road lies the consumption of our species in an orgy of destruction. Better to be wiped out by an asteroid or solar flare, than to do ourselves in, tearing ourselves apart in our own ignorance and lust for blood.

Let us quench this fire, stanch the flow of intolerance, by showing that we need not fall back upon the mindless behaviors of our ancestors. Let those of us who value society show that we are better than that, that we will not be dragged into the muck that settles to the bottom of our species. We need not heap fuel upon the fire; we can, instead, call forth the rain, and stamp it out. To do so proves that we are ready to move out of the shadows and into the light.

Bigotry, Thy Name Is Texas

I consider myself a man of peace and compassion and, hopefully, tolerance, but all of that is tested so completely when I read about sheer and unadulterated bigotry writ large. From the intolerance evinced by supporters of Proposition 8 in California, to the anti-Christian homophobic vitriol of the Westboro Baptist Church, to those who feel the need to denigrate the President of the United States with epithets and thinly-veiled racism. But now my hackles are raised, my teeth set on edge, and bile has reached my throat, so great is the venom in my blood. For, Republicans in the "great" state of Texas have decided that homosexuals, and those who "conspire" with them, are now an enemy to be hounded, arrested, and driven to ground.

The Texas GOP has published their 2010 State Republican Party Platform, and it outlines, in detail, how Republicans in Texas are to go about destroying homosexuals and obliterating the "idea" of homosexuality, not just in their state, but in the entire United States. In addition to the usual screeds about the "defense of marriage" as a solemn union between "one natural man and one natural woman," but instead of stopping their, they call on Congress to enact such legislation as to make this the law of the United States.

But it gets better. In their own words:

Family Values – We affirm that this section is a response to the attacks on traditional family values. These include well funded, vigorous political and judicial attempts by powerful organizations and branches of the government to force acceptance, affirmation and normalization of homosexual behavior upon school children, parents, educational institutions, businesses, employees, government bodies and religious institutions and charities. These aggressive, intolerant efforts marginalize as bigots anyone who dissents.

The hypocrisy is so obvious as to be farcical. Not only do they intend to deprive American citizens of Constitutional rights, and override the judgment of any other State of the Union that approves of gay marriage, they intend to go on the offensive, to attempt to marginalize, de-legitimize, and brand homosexuals as societal rejects, and they will brook no dissent. Sound familiar?

And as if that were not enough:

Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle in our public education and policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.” We are opposed to any granting of special legal entitlements, refuse to recognize, or grant special privileges including, but not limited to: marriage between persons of the same sex (regardless of state of origin), custody of children by homosexuals, homosexual partner insurance or retirement benefits. We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.

Not only will they deny homosexuality as a fact of life, but they would strip homosexuals of their basic freedoms, and make it possible for those with an intolerant and malevolent bent to attack homosexuals without fear of criminal penalty!!!

This pathetic, inflammatory, bigoted, and, frankly, un-American set of "principles" is the lowest ebb of American society. It is a declaration that the basic principles of freedom and liberty as espoused in the Constitution of the United States, only belong to those of certain classes of people, and those classes shall determine who else may partake of them. It as if the execrable parts of the Constitution -- those enumerating the actual human value of a Negro slave -- were to be re-written for homosexuals, and re-instituted. It seeks to undo the progress this nation has made in creating a union of equal humanity, with liberty and justice for all. It is a repudiation of all America has fought for and stood for, and is spit lobbed onto the graves of all those who died to defend her.

The Republican Party of Texas has decided that open homophobia in State government is preferable, and that they are to be arbiters of what is good and right in this nation, to which I say that I would prefer to declare war on one State in this nation, and take up arms against my fellow Americans, rather than to submit to the tyranny this platform would impose. Not normally prone to violence, I would gladly take up arms to defeat such blatant hatred, cloaked in the tattered fabric of "God and Country." There is no room in a nation of patriots and freedom-loving citizens for their ilk, and I, for one, refuse to countenance such backward and bigoted thinking.

No matter what your beliefs, no matter how you feel, no matter what convoluted and contentious view of the world you may hold, the freedom, liberty, and justice that is part of the fabric of this nation, is something to which each and every American citizen is entitled. You may wish no part of it, you may think them heathens or worse, you may decide to cling to words of your maker, but that gives you no right to deprive others of their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. To do so is tyranny, and a nation born of tyranny, that fought for independence from tyranny, has no business imposing it upon its citizens. Let it be known, that in the United States of America, such injudicious and unconscionable destruction of individual freedom and liberty shall not stand.

Oh, The Humanity

It is easy enough, perhaps, to separate ourselves from others. We can erect whatever barriers we choose, to segregate or compartmentalize people, to fit them into our orderly view of the world. Those same barriers can be used to deflect the uncomfortable truths which would threaten our societal constructs. These walls can only be torn asunder only by the most brute application of reason and tolerance and compassion; rarely is such force capable of being assembled easily.

To be open-minded, requires a constant fight against the deep-seated instincts of our primitive ancestors, who survived a cruel and tortuous world by developing a healthy paranoia, a distrust of anything that was different, or that they did not understand. This survival instinct brought them through the worst of times and harshest of conditions, and allowed them to grow and flourish, giving rise, eventually, to our modern civilization.

Along the way, as groups of humans learned to come together and cooperate for mutual benefit, the instinct transformed from a tool of survival, to a means of differentiation. The primitive brain, since shuffled down the ladder of primacy by the powerful cerebral cortex, held on doggedly to some power, planting notions within the higher thought centers that were not so easily ignored. It sought to ensure hierarchy within the group, by making some strive to be more powerful or richer than others, to keep the rest in their place; it worked to keep strangers out of the group, by planting seeds of distrust because of how others looked, acted, or seemed. In the middle centuries of modern human culture, the primitive brain still ruled, but as the power behind the throne.

The 20th Century began to show the true promise and potential of humanity, and we would have been excused for thinking that finally the cerebral cortex had won out over the primitive brain, but the 21st Century appears to be beginning with a regression. While our technology opened up global communication and the sharing of ideas, it also allowed the hidden and sometimes long dormant underbelly of human society to creep back into the light, to spread virulently among those not inoculated by education and common sense.

Now we see the rebirth of intolerance writ large across a great spectrum -- illegal immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals, just to name a few, must withstand a barrage of invective and vituperation that we are unaccustomed to seeing in recent history, being they are so blatant and repugnant. Many thought the election of a black President signaled a sea change in our society, that the demagoguery and racism and hatreds of the past were no more, little realizing they were hiding like vipers in the reeds, waiting to strike the unsuspecting. Anything that settled temporarily to the bottom of the melting pot, now is stirred up and mixed in with the stew.

It is easy to condemn those who expose their ignorance and bigotry so readily, but it is not enough, because they will not simply stop at the first sign of resistance. They have honed their intolerance, crafted it into neat systems that resist any and all attempts at the application of reason. We must endeavor to not only point out the incongruities that drive their flawed and fallacious arguments, we must ensure that we meet them at every point of engagement, show them for what they are, and lay out the case for reason. Only in that way, can we hope to drive ignorance and bigotry back under the rocks they crawled out from.

They Who Stand Against The Tide

Every decade, every century of America's existence has seen an inexorable crawl toward the clearer light, but not without strife, not without fear, and not without hatred. Slavery, women's rights, civil rights... to make strides in our quest for a united and free humanity, Americans have had to fight bare-knuckled against themselves, trying to expunge the worst parts of the human condition, literally stamping them out in some cases. Each fight seems bloodier than the last, even as the body counts grow smaller, maybe because the dead may lie in peace beneath the trees, but the damage to the American psyche never quite heals, never quite goes away.

With each stride forward, we have had to drag along the unwilling, who count themselves Americans, but do not want to share their freedom and liberty with others, as if the Founding Fathers and the Constitution have granted them exclusive rights that they could dole out as they saw fit. Whether from the barrel of a rifle or the marching feet of peaceful protest, those who would not come willingly have been carried onward, toward a future they abhor, where everyone is truly equal, where we are no longer White or Black or Jew or Christian or Muslim or Man or Woman, but Human, something we have been all along, even as some refused to admit it.

The new battle line is homosexuality. Forced to incorporate people from other races, women, members of other religions, the intolerant have drawn a wide line in the sand, and refuse to budge. They will not acknowledge that homosexuals are people, with rights, privileges, feelings, desires, and hopes. They will cling to the dogma that tells them that these people are "abominations" before their god. They will not yield, not budge, not give up an inch of ground. They will make their displeasure felt... short of actually admitting it in words.

Nowhere was this thrown into sharper relief, than in the actions of school administrators in Fulton, Mississippi, who would not allow a gay student, Constance McMillen, to go to her prom with her girlfriend. To that end, they canceled the prom, only to draw a court challenge, recently won by the ACLU. So, they said they would hold a prom after all, apparently acceding to the ruling of the court. Little did anyone know that they did not intend to let a little thing like the justice system of the United States stand in the way of their disgusting hatred. They held a "prom," which turned out to be a fake, while the real prom was held somewhere else, sans Constance and her date. To do such a thing -- besides being blatantly homophobic and bigoted -- required the tacit assistance of the community, both to create the fake prom and to hide the real one. In essence, it takes a village to raise children capable of perpetrating and participating in such a heinous act.

Their stubborn refusal to give ground subjects them to the inexorable grinding away caused by the winds of change and the waves of liberty. Not unlike the rocks that stand sentinel at the edge of the sea, they may stand there in their imposing posture, but each wave that crashes against them wears them down, just a little. The constant friction will wear down and grind away the monoliths of ignorance, intolerance, and bigotry. They may believe that in getting away with their ruse, they have won; let them wallow in their self-congratulation, then. All they have done is seal their fate.

They will be excoriated, and rightly so. America stands for freedom and liberty for all people, and though the Founders could not have made that clearer, subsequent action by this nation has defined that intent for all time. Each group that once was on the outside, now enfolded in the protections they always deserved, removes one more impediment to true freedom and unity for all, and marks such contemptible actions as those seen in Fulton, Mississippi, as even further outside the bounds of decency. They should not be hated, however, but pitied; they could accept the inevitable and become part of a greater thing, the breadth and life of humanity, but instead, they condemn themselves to the slow, tortuous, miserable death by their fear and ignorance, forever deprived of the riches that come from acceptance of their place as part of the milieu we call humanity. Like the dinosaurs, they, too, shall pass from the Earth, to haunt it no longer, relics and fossils that will be looked upon in future centuries as part of an incomprehensible past.