The irreducible maculate upon the lofty, laudable establishment of our particular and experimental form of governmental democracy was the decision to lay aside the issue of slavery. This was done consciously, deliberately, and presumably for the sake of expedience, as the formation of our fledgling nation might not have been successful, due to the intransigent conflicted attitude toward the issue held by the small band of wealthy revolutionaries organizing the effort. They simply had too much to lose: too much wealth, too much influence, too much power.
Our nation was much smaller then, but no less fractious regarding the issue of race than nowadays. Our only hope for a United States launched in triumphant opposition to Britain’s formidable empire and its military strength, depended upon the participation of every state. That tenuous, argumentative cooperation was threatened by collapse should the divisive issue of the abolition of slavery be propounded as indivisible from the ideals of our nascent nation.
They were exceptional men, granted privilege by societal norms, circumstance, intelligence, and slaves.
It is nothing less than the most poignant, disgraceful irony of the Declaration of Independence that the United States’s African diaspora were included by implied inference within the high-flown rhetoric asserting the equality of all men in theory, yet excluding our African brothers and sisters in practice. At this juncture in our country’s history (it is August of 2017), can any real purpose be served in jabbing a morally disapproving, hindsighted finger in the faces of those men whom we venerate as far-thinking and egalitarian?
They were exceptional men, granted privilege by societal norms, circumstance, intelligence, and slaves. They were also exceptional through the shameless facility of exclusion, and there can be no doubt that had their slaves through a fortuitous accident of birth embraced a similar confluence of education, wealth, and privilege, they would have enjoyed the same status and accomplishments.
Subsequent to the end of the American Revolutionary War and the exit from this country of the last British troops from New York in 1783, and the date in 1862 of the first announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, slightly less than eighty years had passed. The deferred issue of slavery had finally been addressed, its multiple injustices to be abolished, though the residue of its awful truths will likely never be eradicated.
Perhaps the sad dicta of our simian ancestry shall never allow us to be free of our seemingly innate prejudices. We distrust and fear strangers, or those whom we assume or identify to be different from us. We are easily threatened, and our irrational fear of actual or imagined danger pushes us to anger and aggression. Chimpanzees in tribes behave in such a way, with fiercely-defended borders and territories. If one troupe lives in an area with abundant water, yet only adequate food, and another lives upon an adjacent plot of land boasting abundant food and only adequate water, it will never be the case that a peaceful detente will emerge through the fortunate territorial combination of both groups, despite the fact that such an amalgamation will be of mutual benefit to all.
But a chimp’s life in the wild is relatively short and difficult, and so the “territorial imperative” which helps to insure survivability pushes him to maintain and expand his influence; and not only for himself, but for the family of others that exist by benefit of a social structure that provides associative protection.
We are not chimps, and we should not behave like them. We have been blessed with a certain form of sapience. Our wisdom is shaded finely with issues composed of moral structure, ethical behaviour, and the acknowledgement of the intrinsic value of life itself. We need not simply grasp selfishly and covetously for all that we may gather, ignoring the plight or calamity of our neighbors.
Recent racist events in Charlottesville, VA, home to the University of Virginia (which we are sure prefers understandably to laud its educational values as progressive and inclusive), provided an unfortunate incongruous backdrop to the lamentable confrontations there. The so-called “Unite the Right” rally brought several thousand marchers to the college town, with the local and state police seemingly under-prepared for the numbers of those participating.
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union – https://www.aclu.org/) have gone on record as defending staunchly the right of participants to express their hate-filled opinions, citing their view that the right of everyone and anyone to have complete freedom of speech must be universal. This is a principle in theory with which I agree, but is made quickly onerous and debatable once hate-riddled speech led some to perpetrate physical violence upon otherwise peaceful counter-protesters.
In an article (http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/14/us/police-response-charlottesville-trnd/index.html) which appeared online on August 14, 2017, from the news agency CNN (Cable News Network – https://www.cnn.com/), both white supremacist and alt-right founder Richard Spencer, and Jason Kessler who helped to organize the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, attributed blame for the violence to police. According to a tweeting Spencer, “Trump should not have praised the state and local police. They did the opposite of their job. Total disaster.” #Charlottesville 3:42 PM – Aug 12, 2017
On Sunday morning, August 13, 2017, Kessler made the statement, “The blame for today’s violence lies primarily with the Charlottesville government officials and the police officers who failed to maintain law and order, protect the First Amendment rights of rally participants, and provide for their safety.”
Despite what you may feel about free speech, and the preparedness of local law enforcement officials, these statements seem tantamount to exonerating those whose inflammatory, racially derogatory, defaming words attempted openly to incite others to violence, and then damning others once the violence ensued. I am reminded of the indignant car thief whose sole defense for his actions was the feeble protest of “If the guy didn’t want his car stolen, he shouldn’t have left his keys in the ignition.”
The Blighted Right is nothing more than the pathetic gambit of deranged bigots to preserve and propagate their illness to others. Principal among the infected would appear to be, sadly, the current President of the United States, who emphatically and simplistically lumps together and equates those who reject racism with those who would perpetuate it. This underscores the very real danger of allowing a mentally defective oaf to wield real power and influence upon the world’s stage. It may very well be that the most subtle discrimination he is capable of achieving is regulating how loudly he yells. However, even this may be attributing more credit than is either evidenced or deserved by his actions.
It is a regrettable fact that we have exchanged our softly elegant, articulate former President Obama, for a bombastic, belligerent, bellicose buffoon. Alas, if we seek sage guidance and enlightened leadership for safe and balanced direction through the fraught times ahead, we must direct our attention and fidelity somewhere very distant from Washington, D.C.
A bombastic, belligerent, bellicose buffoon? Now we are in a totally opposite situation. A limpid near incoherent puppet with no idea what day it is much less grasping the damage being done to our economy, world respect and safety. I did not like some of the things the “buffoon” said, but truthfully, most people understand now that his focus was on the health of our nation unlike the wild eyed greenies who want us to drive electric cars while China and India pollute with abandon. So, how are the gasoline prices affecting us? Sure, make a grandiose gesture by closing a pipeline and shutting down many domestic energy sources. The problem being, the current administration is punishing it’s own along with the “enemies” of the right. As our VP said before the Virginia election, Mid term and beyond will be very interesting. Blessings to all, and God bless America.