Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. –Marcus Aurelius
Whoever you are, I would like to have a conversation with you and so much the better if you identify as a Republican/GQP/MAGA/Insurrectionist bent on turning America into a dictatorship.
In many ways, it is entirely understandable you feel left out of the political process. That your minority of a minority views (which kind of speaks for itself) are for the most part being ignored if not ridiculed by the majority of Americans who know and respect our democracy and our duly elected by the popular will of the people, President Joe Biden.
Notice I used the word respect. You may notice it pop up a few additional times during this essay as the time has come for us all, together, to discuss the bright future of our great country and when united in thoughts and deeds (no more hopes and prayers, please), what we may hope to achieve in search of a more perfect union.
Yet I find myself hesitant to begin an earnest conversation without expressing my opinions on what I would consider let’s call them points of contention that quite frankly are not based on reality, but a wish list fit for a plantation owner during the years leading up to the US Civil War.
If we are to succeed as one nation (and we will) there has to be an understanding between all parties that the truth matters and as much as we may disagree on what constitutes the truth, there are some touch points that must be part of the dialogue and exchange that we can no longer sweep under the rug, much less have the time to re-argue, re-litigate or obscure in an effort to revise history.
For instance, the South lost the Civil War and as part of the terms of surrender, it is no longer legal to practice the sickening institution of slavery in any of the 50 states or territories of our great nation. This is one of the finest moments in our nation’s history. A time when persons who were already free fought to gain the freedom of those persons who were not.
The quasi intellectual person who believes the South shall rise again (it won’t) would possibly make an argument that the Civil War continued into the Reconstruction era, leading to a time that included the imposition of the anti-freedom and discriminatory Black Codes ripening into the separate but equal madness of the Jim Crow Era.
As interesting as this analysis may be, it is of little relevance in today’s world and of little assistance to the modern wounds we are currently suffering that need reconciliation and healing as part of our shared journey as a nation going forward.
To that end, may I suggest the first “guardrail” of discussion? A move that will save us time and effort that is needed elsewhere as a sign of if nothing else a certain willingness to deal in an honest, critical and realistic evaluation of the past so as not to waste the lessons of our past, and once again fall prey to our earth-bound and emotional demons.
If we are to follow our better angels, then quite simply, isn’t it time for the Lost Cause to be just that? Only this time, lost forever? You know, gone with the wind? Can we put away the false sentiments of nobility attributed to a gang of traitors (yes, they were traitors)?
Who took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, who decided that in the name of preserving and extending if possible the evils of involuntary servitude, an institution so demeaning and degrading, so without redeeming quality, its ultimate demise could only be, as it is today, eradication on a global level? Can we at least agree people are not property? That slaves were not “better off” in America as slaves? That in America, we are either all free, or none of us are free?
Can we agree that some “culture” isn’t worth preserving yet alone worthy of veneration as the honorable actions of good men who sought nothing but to exercise their natural birthright? For if we could, isn’t it possible that we can have a rap session about the possibility that some vestige of slavery still exists by way of systematic racism as academically studied (and nothing more) under the banner of critical race theory?
For it is this kind of thinking, that somehow the ghosts of Confederate Generals now cast in bronze statues will somehow bring back to life the spirit of past horrors in a light more favorable (due to revisionist history?) is far beyond fanciful and clearly in the realm of false hopes caused by fever dreams as a return to a place of pride and glory that never existed.
There is, was, and will never be anything honorable about slavery. There is nothing praiseworthy or admirable about treating human beings like livestock, property and chattel. There is nothing remotely laudable about separating human beings from their homes, breaking up families, raping as a perk of ownership and creating an environment where no atrocity was off limits if practiced in scope of the master-servant relationship.
No, this is not a discussion we can all have and call it a serious. It would be merely another way to avoid the true issue at its core that must be discussed. Of course, I speak of racism, both parasite and predator, a form of hatred that so thoroughly binds its host in a cocoon of unreasonable and unjustifiable fear that does not allow for the imposition of reason, compassion, or understanding even when clearly exposed to irrefutable evidence that we are all brothers and sisters born of the same celestial womb and, that in the final analysis, we are all we have, aren’t we?
Again, I ask, can we have this kind of honest debate, while maintaining a healthy respect for each other’s level of intellect and search for the truth? Or, must we continue down a path where we still are fighting over voting rights? Bandying about conspiracy theories involving the “deep state” delivered by a pedophile named “Q”?
Whether there was or was not an insurrection on January 6th, 2021 brought on in large part by an avowed racist and could not wait to be crowned king or at least emperor Trump who betrayed his country and yet is mistakenly revered as the savior of America, a patriot, or even still, as a vessel of God?
The rights of women to control their own bodies, the right to decide who to love unconditionally regardless of gender or sexual preference, without judgment from the peanut gallery of ignorance and oppression. The right to worship, or not.
Ultimately and unfortunately, all of these acts based on hate leading back to yet another I’ll be kind and call it an evaluation, and I say this all with a nod to the actual Native Tribal Americans, of who is and is not, an American?
You say you want a revolution? If you are talking about blood and soil, white hoods and turmoil, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyway. These are some of my views and yes, some of my rules of debate. Wanna talk? I’m listening.
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