They say "This is not who we are!"....WANNA BET?

The civil unrest, the violence and bigotry, the lies and obstinacy, well that’s not me at all. And if you’re reading this, it’s probably not you either. But as a nation, the one WE are citizens of, and therefore, have the right to criticize, constructively, “We” may not refer to you or I, but still applies to this flawed nation.

Like most of you, I saw what unfolded at the nation’s capital 2 days ago when members of Congress were scrambling around like runaway slaves, fugitives, or horrified children, hiding, and trying to avoid capture. Like you, I saw bigoted, self-righteous, falsely entitled men and woman who claimed they were participating in a revolution, as so called “patriots” when in fact, they were engaged in a willful and deadly act of domestic terrorism, unlike anything we’ve experienced since the War of 1812 when the British set the Capital ablaze in August of 1814.

Yeah, you witnessed history. It’s that serious. This will be in a history test in a textbook some 50 to 100 years from now.

And as the dust settles, as windows are repaired at the capital, as the news media, except for Fox, Breitbart and OAN, rebuke these predatory behaviors, as millions watching on TV wipe away tears, and manage fears, or utter disgust and embarrassment at what they witnessed, that all too familiar quote is filling the airways again, that “THIS IS NOT WHO WE ARE.”

WANNA BET?

America is currently great at 3 things....

1. MASS SHOOTINGS
2. MASS INCARCERATION
3. MASS DENIAL OF ISSUES WE CREATE, ALMOST GUARANTEEING ITS PERPETUATION

[It should also be noted that America also includes Canada, Central and South America, but there just isn’t time to explain this arrogant and bigoted worldview right now. My apologies, I digress...]

This is EXACTLY who we are! So...you might wanna have a seat, grab the Pepto Bismol, or the bourbon, a cigarette, or call a loved one for support, because guess what? This is ALWAYS who we’ve been, as a nation!

Sure, we are still a superpower. Sure, this nation has led the world in many things, in many ways. “We” created the industrial revolution, the computer age, advanced medicine, invented the airplane, promoted education for the average person, and was instrumental in winning WWI and WWII and promoting the concept of democracy, liberty and freedom for all.

BUT....

“We” as a nation, never lived up to that dream, and were “told and sold” a dream that was not only never our collective reality, it was never intended to be. While the Revolutionary war took place, women had no rights, slavery was already being practiced for 150 years, and many who signed the declaration of Independence owned slaves themselves. This begs the question, “democracy for whom?”

But THIS is who we are...

During the infancy of this nation, only wealthy White men attended college (Harvard, Yale, Rutgers-“Queen’s college”, Columbia –“King’s college, Brown, Penn, Princeton, and the like). “TADA!” The Ivy League, which still operates very much like it did 200 years ago. Less segregated, but still elitist in nature, and a hotbed of nepotism and cronyism.

But THIS is who we are...

At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the 3/5ths compromise provided southern states greater representation for taxation purposes, and greater power in the House of Representatives, while still viewing slaves as non-voting chattel.

But THIS is who we are...

The Civil War was not over “States rights”, it was over slavery, as the south preferred to maintain it in order to conserve their primary source of income and riches, rather than accept an entire race as being human and deserving of humanity. These attitudes remain evident in the wake of the deaths of countless and meaningless shootings and deaths of Blacks such as Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, and George Floyd.

But THIS is who we are...

Oh yes, between 1963 and 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment led to freedom from bondage, only to be reintegrated as cheap or free labor through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Black Codes, Lynching, Segregation, and mass incarceration. The demise of Jim Crow and Black Codes is questionable at best, but legal segregation, mass incarceration, and lynching still takes place today.

But THIS is who we are...

Woman didn’t get the vote until 1920, but are still called “the weaker sex” by many. Despite making up over half of the U.S. population, women continue to experience discrimination in government and employment, and are grossly underrepresented in business, politics, and higher education. They are also far more likely to be the victims of crimes, and less likely to receive fair treatment in any U.S. courtroom.

But THIS is who we are...

Native Americans once thrived all across these lands until the concept of “manifest destiny” land ownership, and capitalism led self-entitled European Americans to commit mass genocide. These are the same Native Americans who helped Europeans survive when they landed on Plymouth Rock and created Jamestown. Still, this didn’t prevent the American Indian Wars, or the massacre of Wounded Knee in 1890. Unless you live on an Indian Reservation, or frequent an Indian Casino, or are related to Native Americans, you’ll rarely see them in abundance in a land that once only they occupied in the millions.

But THIS is who we are...

Asians helped to build the railroad in the mid-19th century, but Asian Americans were vilified and sent to relocation centers, just for being Asian, and out of fear of being associated with that attack on Pearl Harbor. But Americans dropped the only 2 nuclear weapons in history upon Japan, despite that fact that that war was coming to an end anyway, and victory was at hand. Asians have continued to be vilified long after WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, while Americans enjoy Asian technological and industrial advancements and products from Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Kia, Panasonic, and Samsung. And don’t get me started on our actions in the Philippines during WWII.

But THIS is who we are...

The Aborigines in Australia, and South Africans are also more than familiar with being undermined in their own lands by those who believe them to be inferior, and who believe themselves to be entitled to privileges never earned, and to take resources and abuse populations undeserving of their vitriol or subjugation. Americans did not do this, but the same people who eventually became Americans are also the same people who eventually became South Africans and Australians.

And let’s not forget; there are still thousands of Latinx men, woman AND CHILDREN IN CAGES at the Mexican border, seeking citizenship, and, or asylum from dangerous conditions for themselves and their families. For centuries, Italians, the British, the French, Germans, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Nigerians, Kenyans, etc....have all immigrated here and helped to build this nation. Why would we treat this immigrants and asylum seekers any different?

But THIS is who we are...

This is not the case with all Americans, or even most Americans, but it is the case with ENOUGH Americans to fracture democracy, pollute a planet, cause extinctions, allow pandemics, and to risk nuclear annihilation.

But THIS is who we are...

And recent history continues to reveal the truth, but we, as a nation, refuse to accept it, experiencing not one, but TWO national psychological epidemics; the “Dunning Kruger Effect” where our undeserved position of arrogance lies, and “Cognitive Dissonance” where our ignorance undermines the so called “common sense” we seem to believe all people possess. News flash: “common sense” isn’t, and has never been common.” This, in part, is what led to Trumpism, and the Covid-19 pandemic. As despicable as he may be, (and he is), Trump didn’t create most of our issues, he helped REVEAL them, and is a PRODUCT of a broke social experiment we’ve been conducting for more than 200 years.

It is because of these issues, combined with the assumption that your 10 minute YouTube and Twitter research equates to years of empirical evidence based research, facts, education, training, and peer reviews by scholars, researchers and practitioners trained in fact checking.

Out of this lies that belief that facts are pliable, and subjective, that it’s okay to deny truth if it doesn’t support their worldview. And worse, they have the audacity to believe that if one doesn’t submit to their will, their undeserved and destructive demands, and their efforts to maintain a system of bigotry and chaos that benefits conquerors of the innocent, and those culturally, socio-politically, and racially privileged citizens of these questionably “United” States, then they believe that they, and they ALONE, have the right to tear it all down....with little expectation of repercussions, despite becoming a major threat to a nation they claim to love, as long as that love is reserved just for them.

But THIS is who we are...

We CAN be better.

We MUST be better.

But today...... THIS is EXACTLY who we are...

There’s nothing wrong with the DREAM or CONCEPT of American Democracy. But it’s only a concept, one we’ve NEVER lived up to. The concept is excellent as a tool for marketing, used to obtain oil, create billionaires, scare allies, and maintain power for a chosen few. But we’ve never been “great” based on those concepts, whatsoever.

And if we don’t accept that fact, and stop beating our proverbial chests with rants of so called “American Greatness,” then we are bound to repeat these generational misconceptions again, and again, and again, as we always have, since Plymouth Rock.

And this too shall pass.....but not now, not today, not tomorrow, because right now, in this point in space, and time....

THIS is EXACTLY who we are.