Next Saturday is supposed to be Independence Day, but somehow we seem more enslaved than ever this 224th birthday. Not only are we dealing with a 100-year disease, but society has put its foot down on the issue of black oppression, and this time they’re wearing heavy jack boots.
The oppression reckoning has been a long time coming, but I’m not sure how it will affect the future of our country. Our origins, at least how we had it in school, were based upon the acquisition of laborers who received little or no wages and low quality food and board in exchange for building part of the country (the South) for rich land barons. History, as it was taught to us, says that European traders brought sturdy Africans over and sold them to be used as field hands and builders. I don’t know why the traders could not have made offers of employment in the new world to them, rather than chain them up and forcibly sell them as chattel, but that was apparently how it was done back then. Who knows what the South would’ve looked like if nobody worked on anything, but since we have apparently been lied to all these years about our history, how can one discuss such things and really be sure we know what we’re talking about? I’m probably wrong, too, but I’m willing to put out there what I remember. It never seemed right to me, as a child, to make somebody into somebody else’s prisoner.
The whole truth is hidden somewhere, and in order to settle everything down, we will probably have to sort it all out and decide where that is, and whose story we shall rely upon to reprogram our thinking on the issue.
We are also dealing with a lot of name changes. Anybody who has used the “n word” or was known historically to have owned a slave, or was a major public figure in a time at which nothing was done about discrimination or oppression, is being publicly shunned, and statues erected to tell their story–selective though it may be–torn down with shouts of vengeful disdain. School buildings will be renamed, along with talks of a new name for New York City’s famous Columbus Boulevard, since he overtook the natives when discovering this plot of dirt for us. Even the famous Mount Rushmore is in discussion to change it and remove or add new faces. It’s enough to make one’s head spin.
Folks, history happened one way and one way only. We should never have lied about it, nor ignored it or covered it up. In the past few weeks I have heard so many new tales (one doozie said George Washington’s supposed wooden teeth were actually stolen from the mouths of slaves), we will destroy our sense of selves as surely as if we were brainwashed by pros.
Actually, it looks like we’ve already been brainwashed by pros who had free reign to pick and choose what to tell children about our nation’s history. At least we were not programmed to deify a public figure without question. But are we America, or not?
The festivities on the Fourth of July will be televised fireworks from previous events, since we cannot gather to watch any spectacle in groups for fear of getting sick. Maybe this is what we have truly earned: a mirthless, silent day for reflection on what we have allowed ourselves to become, and what we may be doomed to be forever unless we act now.
There are no lowly people, so there are no lowly jobs, and thus there should be no lowly pay, and qualifications should be the measure of eligibility for a job, not what the applicant looks like. Education should not be one type for this group and another lesser version for that group, and it cannot be rewritten to make anybody look perfect or rock-bottom terrible; you must tell the whole story. Facts are called for. That is the measure of any human being: their successes and failures together. Don’t tear the statues down: make the signage bigger and tell the good story and the bad. That way you don’t have to rename places or lie about anything.
Another good thing about telling the whole story: many of our young people are struggling with self-worth issues, and they cannot see what their contributions will be in this world. Our ability to face our failures and learn by them are what we should promote for young people, so they can understand that not everything they do will be great, but they have the potential to be a great part of what this country needs. Good, honest, humanity.
The country was built on how we erred and tried again, and again. That is what makes a good human race.
Maybe we’ll look better for our 225th birthday.
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