June 15, 2019
It’s June 15th, today is my oldest child’s birthday. I look at my kids and I remember the hope that I felt when I had them. Hope that I was raising individuals that would change the world. There is still time to see if that comes true or not. I help to set them on their paths but they are now in charge of what they follow and where it goes.
So as I sit here on this Saturday evening, I scroll through my social media accounts and thoughts turn toward the world we live in. The world that seems to be falling apart or at least that’s what the media at large wants to purport.
Political unrest, unjust policies, racial tensions, religious wars, military incursions, and the death of people due to the lack of basics like food and water are not new. I say this to younger men and women I meet who are all up in arms about it but they weren’t there growing up, seeing the same things on the nightly news as a kid in the late 70’s to early 80’s. These things caused fear and distress to the 8 year old me.
The only difference now from then is that it is more easily seen because of technology and the scale to which it occurs is bigger than what was previously seen. This is both good and bad.
It’s good because now the world has the ability to be a collective voice seeking justice for those that are just struggling to survive and exist. We as the human race, the ones with a semblance of a moral conscience, now have the ability to rally people from all over the world to fight for a cause.
It is sometimes awe-inspiring to see. The work of people from all over the world can now be accessed, listened to, read about, commented on, or followed on their own platforms. This was not possible 40 years ago when I was just a kid of 8 years old. The only information we had was based on 3 major networks of American television, newspapers, magazines, and sometimes the radio. We’ve come such a long way to now having all that information easily accessible in the palm of our hand from anywhere in the world.
The consequence of having this power of knowledge is the effect of making people jaded. The moral conscience is flawed. The influence of those with their own agendas is infiltrating and muddling the information making it seem like that truth doesn’t exist. That behind every truth there is also a lie.
Yet for the last 100 years of information, data, historical writings, and facts we believed in things based on the expert opinions of the people who were doing the work and providing the information. Now, any person with internet access can be seen as an expert if their ideals match our own or seem to make sense because we’ve become too lazy to seek out information, form our own opinion, and make logical conclusions.
There is so much “fluff” out there to cushion our own fears and keep us safe in our own little parts of the world. We’ve come to the point of fearing each other instead of coming together. The world was made smaller by technology and now everyone wants to stay in their own little square, not making any moves to change and grow. We are moving backwards to a time when we feared the unknown instead of embracing the adventure into the new.
So the last couple of days I’ve been reading about the incident that occurred in Memphis, Tennessee concerning racial disparity/treatment and law enforcement. An African American/Black male was being sought by Federal Marshals in connection with a crime that occurred earlier in the month. The suspect in question used his vehicle to ram the officer’s vehicle and apparently exited the vehicle with a weapon in hand. Instead of trying to disarm him, he was apparently shot more than 15 times and killed by the officers. The public/bystanders who witnessed this occur were incensed by another killing of a young black male. They took it into their own hands and attacked the officers, those that came to assist, and some journalists there reporting the incident. At the end 36 officers were injured plus the journalists. The community at large had enough of the differential treatment by authorities concerning minorities and how they encounter/treat them. It is becoming a regular occurrence and that is a sad state of affairs for our country.
The fight between the people governed and those that govern is not new. It has been this way since the inception of a governing body system. The only thing that has changed is the fact that now the people have the ability to show what’s going on through their phone’s video camera. The inability of law enforcement to be a neutral and unbiased isn’t new either. All minority groups within the United States have been enduring mistreatment for many years. The only difference now than 50 years ago is that as a society the world is watching. We are not only judging each other but the world at large is judging us too. It is time for a change before the civil unrest turns into a civil war. A system of oppression can only go for so long before it implodes. Just look at other countries around the world where the people revolted against their governments.
Now, as a minority female and single parent I don’t want my children to be forced into having to fight to exist, no one should have to face this. So I raised them to gain knowledge, find answers, and use their own logic to discern truth from fiction. Society as a whole is failing in this area. We no longer value being logical because that requires actually listening to another person’s opinion and considering their point of view. We’ve become this “me” society when it comes to the changes we want to see instead of a ”we” society capable of making the changes we want because that would require working together.
So as I continue moving forward, into whatever the next chapter in life is, I can only keep hope, faith, and belief alive in knowing that as a person who shares this world with others we have been here before. As like before, it will work itself out, and we will be better in the end.
This is of course just another opinion of someone who is out here online with access to the internet. 🙂
Thank you and have a good week.
May peace, love, and happiness always find you.
Suzanne
love to bake 