"Black lives matter, because if they don't, no lives matter."
This is what I see the movement bearing its name is prophetically trying point out. We cannot afford to ignore the obvious. That there are those who take issue with the slogan and movement that is rightfully protesting the targeting and killing of mostly young black men is both a political and societal faux pas of biblical proportions that is tearing the very fabric of the nation.
We white folk forget that we all came from a common mother who, by the way, happened to be Black. All of us are interrelated. Even with this knowledge, we find ourselves still struggling in this great nation to fully embrace the blessings of diversity and see it as one of our greatest national treasures.
In this post I am sharing what I consider to be factors that have given rise to the alarming incidents of young black men being killed by predominately white police officers for no particular reason. Each one of these recent killing were pointless and unjustified. Peaceful protest is justified and needed to bring awareness and to keep the pressure on our government to do something. We all have a voice to use and responsibility to use it. Its called voting.
SENSELESS KILLING
There is no doubt that racism is involved in these incidents, but what has caught my attention is that the action of the few police involved in these particular incidents show a disturbing pattern. The pattern involves what appears to be a senseless disregard of the victim, one of which was a twelve year old boy, Tamir Rice, who was brandishing what has been described as toy pellet gun. It's an incident which to my mind defies explanation. If there was a concern about a twelve year old holding or waving a gun, that concern should have been in regard to the boy's safety as much as anyone else's safety, but that was not apparent in this case. It was apparent that he was shot with out any attempt to ascertain if he had a real gun and if he did, what his intent was.
The senseless use of force and the violence demonstrated by the two most recent incidents in Baton Rouge and St. Paul again points to the possibility that something else is going on in the minds of the police officers involved. This is racism with an edge to it, a knee-jerk, shoot-first-ask-questions-later response that has the markings of a sympathetic (nervous system) response to a stimulus which, in these cases, is the race of the victim.
POSTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Such overt violent responses to minor situations involved in these deaths that include peddling, petty theft, and minor traffic violations possess the markings of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder on the part of at least some of the officers involved. This raises the question as to how many of these incidents involved officers who served in the military, were involved in active combat, and were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan on more than one occasion.
I doubt that I'm the only person who has wondered about this, but little is ever said about the military backgrounds of the officers involved in such incidents. It seems reasonable that some who saw active duty in war zones would seek work in law enforcement as a way to regiment themselves back on their home turf.
For police officers who served in the military and fought and killed people of a different color and ethnicity, people who were deemed the enemy and largely mixed in with a civilian population from which emerged weaponized individuals, including children, who caused the deaths of comrades and military brothers and sisters can be extremely traumatizing and can lead to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Some who suffer from PTSD seek help, but I suspect many don't; in part, because if diagnosed as having PTSD, they would likely be ineligible to serve in police departments. I suspect that there are some suffering from PTSD who try "toughing it out" and consequently seek work in a Police Department to find the camaraderie and a sense of brotherhood similar to the military that helped them cope living in a war zone.
Put such individuals into an environment that mimics a war zone, areas that have a high crime rate, people of different color suspected of some kind if wrong doing, or who are seen as such because of the color of their skin and who are known to be suspicious of the police already - add to that fact the proliferation of guns (legal or illegal) amongst the civilian population who are arming themselves thus necessitating that police to become more defense-minded about personal safety and we have the makings of tragedy. It's just a thought, but one that I feel is worthy of consideration in the pursuit of finding causes and solutions.
PERPETUAL WAR
This is not said or meant to reflect poorly on the brave men and women who served our country faithfully in foreign combat. They are truly heroes and most have return to continue to faithfully serve our nation at home. Rather I mention this out of concern and the realization that there is a cost to perpetual war that extends beyond the lives, the limbs, and the minds of the individuals who nobly serve.
Perpetual war is proving to zap the very soul of this nation and deprive it of its sense of purpose and worthiness. There is no quick fix to war; such as, "going over there" to scorch landscape regardless of threat to another country's civilian population. It's not about winning. No one truly wins in a war. Humanity is always diminished by war. We don't need more blood on our nation's hands. We need to find peaceful ways in dealing with our global neighbors while finding peaceful ways to heal the wounds our wars have caused our own citizens and the trauma it is wreaking on our society as a whole.
RACISM AND SCAPEGOATING
I believe that racism rearing its ugly head, once again, has been exacerbated by a slough of interrelated issues that are being played out in these police-shooting incidents. The first is, as I have mentioned, that we have been a nation at war since 2001 with people who are perceived to look differently, believe differently, and act differently. At present, there appears to be no end in sight to such conflicts.
We are experiencing homegrown terrorism, inspired by both domestic and foreign ideologies, the outcome of perpetual war. We are slowly emerging from an economic meltdown that has resulted in the emergence of what I call the Angry-Old-White-Man Syndrome that is particularly evident during this election season.[I can say that because I'm white, old, but not angry about this country, just deeply concerned.] We have a congress that, since the last three congressional elections, has fomented divisiveness on almost every issue brought before it and has refused to deal with the obvious problem of gun violence that is directly related to these incidents.
Racism strikes me as possessing a strong element of scapegoating.
We are a frustrated nation that is being currently exploited by a presidential candidate and a handful of coattail politicians who aggrandize themselves by braggadociously throwing out political correctness (being cautious with how we speak act towards each other) in the name of making America great again.
These individuals don't get and, from what I can tell, don't want to get that "Black Lives Matter."
Instead they see it as another form of political correctness and continue to dream of turning America into what it was back in the early 1950's, the pre-civil rights era (a nightmare in my book). That the leaders of the Republican led congress give lip service to these tragic events by deploring the racist sentiments expressed by its politically incorrect presumptive nominee is hypocritical. That they dare invoke the name of Abraham Lincoln; as in being the Party of Lincoln, has been a long-standing farce. They've abandoned their ties to Lincoln when they started courting Dixiecrats and fundamentalist Evangelicals in order to win elections. In actuality, they are merely hiding behind Lincoln's shadow while doing nothing to stem the tide of violence except to give the message, "Go buy a gun, you're on your own" to the glee of the NRA and gun industry.
DALLAS
The tremendously heartbreaking killing of five police officers and the wounding of seven others in Dallas is an extension of what I mentioned above. These officers were dutifully protecting peaceful protesters who were exercising their First Amendment right to protest. They too are the victims of scapegoating racism by a black man with an assault rifle, himself a veteran of foreign war who stated that he wanted to kill white people, particularly white police officers.
This has to stop! Violence begets violence.
We rely on our police departments to be there for all of us, and the vast majority are just that, there for all of us. For me it's not a question of a few bad cops spoiling the batch. The question is finding out what is triggering these violent incidents. These incidents are not normal, nor should we treat them as such. These incidents argue for greater mental screening of those seeking jobs that require the use of armed force. They argue for greater racial and ethnic diversity in our police forces that reflects the diversity of the communities they serve. As a nation, I feel we're all on the same page on these issues. They argue for paying more attention to what is happening at home - improving our communities - repairing our nation's infrastructure for all (Flint Michigan comes to mind). Again, most would agree.
Where we are not in apparent agreement is on the most obvious factor in all of the violence that is erupting in our nation: These incidents argue for a complete ban on the sale of all assault guns, and I would go one step further - They argue for a requirement that existing assault guns be registered with law enforcement or pay hefty fines for failing to do so as a means of keeping them off our streets. Such laws would not violate the Second Amendment [Read SCOTUS's majority decision on Heller vs. The District of Columbia]. It is not an infringement to require registration.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
In the meantime, it becomes important to remain persistent in the quest for peaceful solutions and being committed to use the most peaceful and most effective means protesting the violence plaguing our nation, voting. We desperately need a change in our congressional landscape as a first step in changing the nation's landscape to a more tranquil union. We need to start voting out the do-nothings in congress - the Republican led congress needs to end in both houses.
We have a chance to change the leadership in the Senate and a chance of whittling away at the Republican controlled of the House. I am not saying this because I think the Democrats have all the answers, but because we all know by now that the Republicans have none and have only attempted to turn the clock backwards to deprive minorities of their civil rights, to penny-pinch social programs into non-existence, to ignore our nation's infrastructure while spending billions on perpetuating war.
This is not to say that I believe all Republicans who serve in congress are bad or careless. There are some who are honorable, good and hate the situation they find themselves in. In fact, I don't think most truly, in their hearts, support their presumptive nominee, but they have become lost in the quagmire of their party's own making.
I live in a state predominately populated by Republicans and have friends and family who are Republican and know many to be sincere and just as concerned about these events as I am, but as a political party they have lost their way and have painted themselves in a corner. I think they know that the only practical way for them right now is to lose the presidency, beyond that I think in order to fully revamp themselves into a rational conservative voice they need to lose the next two or three congressional elections. They need to lose control of both house of congress for awhile. They need space to regain their footing in the rationality they once possessed, and, as citizens, we should afford them such space.
VOTING ONE'S PROTEST AGAINST RACISM
It is essential this year to ensure that a certain braggadocious, politically incorrect blowhard comes nowhere near the White House and voting for a person who can best calm our nation's troubled waters with wisdom and who possesses the qualities of having a sense of direction, perseverance and a commitment to ensure justice for all. We know who she is.
If you love this country, the choice is simple. As citizens, elections become our chance to enhance the infrastructure of government; that it, in this case, to truly becomes a government by the people and (most importantly in these uncertain days) for all the people instead of government by the few and for the few. We need to ensure, through our votes, that we have a congress that works to "establish justice, ensures domestic tranquility, provides for the common defense, and promotes the general welfare, and secures the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." (paraphrase of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution)
Voting wisely is a starting point that can help bring about the changes we need; to say loud and clear, "Black Lives Matter" and to avoid the disaster that awaits if we fail to choose wisely, but it doesn't stop there. We need to maintain civil discourse amongst ourselves and turn off the fear-mongering news channels that foment distrust and behave moronically in the face of serious matters. We need to remain peacefully vigilant and continue to keep the pressure on all our elected officials to act justly for all.
At this moment, I believe we are faced with a life and death struggle for our nation, which is being exemplified in the statement, "Black Lives Matter." That is why I am writing this out-of-the ordinary post.
Black lives matter, because if they don't matter, no lives matters" and we forfeit being "the land of the free and the home of the brave."
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