December 23, 2014
We have the right… to destroy ourselves
As in other pieces, I try to stick to what I know, both personally and professionally. Admittedly, I stray a bit sometimes and venture out on limbs of conjecture and speculation. Today, I will try to put on my discipline pants and stick close to what I know. Forgive me when I stray! Also, admittedly, I won’t pretend that this piece is something new in concept or among the first of its kind. I will relate this piece to the old joke about when car racing started; shortly after the second car was built. No, this won’t be new. The freedom of speech debate started soon after it was declared a freedom. What is allowed? Everything? No, certainly you cannot yell, “fire!” in a crowded theater when there is no fire. Can I burn a flag? Is that treason? Protest? Ignorance? This is not a new argument, it is just another road sign approaching another crossroad in our Nation’s journey.
Just as in MANY, MANY, MANY counseling situations I have been involved with, the clients comes in to seek help only after there is a very well-developed crisis and lots of consequences. Inevitably, they ask the same question. How did I get to the bottom of this dark, cold hole in my life? It is very rare that the answer has anything to do with a rapid fall after tripping over an unforeseen obstacle. No, people usual start climbing down the hole years before, while humming a tune and pretending it is a magical tunnel that will lead to Paradise Island. Just close your eyes and it can be anything you want it to be!!! However, reality is an incessant inevitability and creeps in as it always does. You feel the pain of your choices when you get closer to the bottom of your particular hole that you have been climbing down. One day, all the “dreamy” is squished out of you under the weight of reality. As you get closer to the bottom, you realize those aren’t really the “kisses of island butterflies” but rather you are being bitten by the vicious man-eating gigantic hole spiders.
America is falling down a hole. Pundits, talking heads, idiots, and other inhabitants of America are calling the freefall all sorts of things other than dangerous. One particular cognitive distortion is the notion that a person can say and/or do anything in the name of freedom guaranteed by rights under the Constitution. Can you say or do anything you want? Sure. Does “protected right under the Constitution” mean that there won’t be a consequence? NO! Just because our Constitution protects free speech and some actions deemed as freedom of speech, it doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed that the result will be you trotting around like a prize pony with a wreath around your neck expecting people to hand you enumerable 1st Prize ribbons for everything you say and do. Some recent events in America demonstrate this point clearly.
A few days ago, two New York City police officers were murdered by a man for no apparent reason other than he wanted to exact revenge for two earlier deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Eric Garner was breaking the law by selling cigarettes on the street. That, to me, doesn’t warrant being choked to death by a police officer, but he also resisted arrest. Michael Brown robbed a convenience store and shortly after when he was confronted by a police officer, the resulting melee resulted in Michael Brown being shot to death by the police officer.
What is at the heart of the linked events? Multi-generational ignorance has grown into a culture of entitlement and an ever growing ethnophobia which creates sociopathy. Fear, and the resulting anger is being driven by the irresponsible exercising freedom of speech. A lot of this “free” speech is simply ignorance being spewed ad nauseam by people who have the ability and inclination to speak with just a hint of logorrheic tendencies. These are the type people that have no knowledge, and facts are garnered from mythical rumors or grotesquely distorted facts. Their “first-hand” experiences are often the espousing of 20th hand knowledge handed down through an unfiltered game of cultural telephone. These folks are just the unwitting pawns and cheerleaders for the more dangerous types, the ones with an agenda.
The dangerous one are the leaders. The Ideological power brokers with agendas and delusions of grandeur are the truly dangerous folks. These folks ONLY have power and identity through their continued feeding (in this case) of the beast of race, hatred, fear and animosity. One such example that stands out now is Al Sharpton. I cringe a little by even writing his name, because I am in a small way fueling his efforts for attention and keeping his aura alive. These type people don’t care whether the attention is good or bad, as long as it keeps coming. They are masters of spin and use opposition as fuel for more divisive tactics. A very real perception among some demographics is that if I oppose Mr. Sharpton, I must be racist and want to cause him harm. Obviously, I know that is a load of bunk. But, as in my counseling sessions, it isn’t the reality that matters, but the perception thereof.
Mr. Sharpton has the right to express his opinion. Again, this is guaranteed by our Constitution. I say Mr. Sharpton helped pull the trigger in the murder of the two NYPD officers and needs to be held accountable. What if we held people accountable for social upheaval, just as we hold those accountable for yelling “fire” when there is none in a crowded theater? We won’t because we aren’t at the bottom of the hole yet.
Let’s not forget the influence that media companies have as well. They will quickly lawyer up and deny culpability, but I have mentioned many times before that our current set of laws and system of justice DOES NOT DETERMINE right or wrong. The point I am trying to make is one that will fall on many deaf ears due to ignorant minds and cold hearts. Words are powerful, dangerous and more effective weapons than any army in the world. Media knows all too well that a message can be manipulated for tremendous profit and profit is the goal of media.
Before I stray too far, let me get back to the recent events. President Obama said that he worries about black people and their interaction with police. The US Attorney General, Eric Holder expressed similar sentiments. Al Sharpton said similar. The current Mayor of New York City warned his son of similar. The message is that Black people have to worry about police. Here is where the message is so heavily skewed and driven by ignorance.
Robert goes to the convenience store, grabs some cigars and tries to walk out the door without paying for them. The clerk/owner of the store confronts me. I push him and keep walking. I am walking in the driving lane of a road. A police officer attempts to stop Robert. Robert start fighting the police officer. Golly, what will the result be of this story? Robert has to worry about police officers now! What if Robert resists arrest after trying to sell those cigars on the street? Again, Robert has to worry about police officers! Again, Robert has to worry about police officers! Do I really need to make this type of analogy?? The answer is a painfully obvious “no” to those who aren’t under the influence.
Mr. President, you are stating that laws don’t matter because the enforcers of the law are dangerous and corrupt. Mr. President you hold the highest office in our nation. Your office is charged with EXECUTING the laws, enforcing them. Mr. Holder, you are telling black people that they have a right to say and do whatever they want because police officers are wholly corrupt, racist and going to enact a coup with their recent militarization. Mr. Holder, you are the Nation’s highest attorney. You are charged with interpreting law for the enforcers. Mr. Sharpton, you say that ALL black people are still slaves and should fear white people and the only way out is through violent overthrow and enslaving of other races. Your title of “Reverend” would make me believe you know God and our savior Jesus Christ. Mayor Bill de Blasio, you are telling young people that police are the enemy and that multi-ethinc/race people are inferior and should be scared. Those who your son is supposed to be scared of work for you.
Had any of these men taken personal responsibility for the effect of their messages we would be in a different place today and perhaps ALL of those killed in recent months would be alive. Perhaps if Michael Brown had been reared on the messages of Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr., he would be alive. Perhaps if Eric Garner had been taught right and wrong by a family culture he would not have been in the street selling cigars illegally. Perhaps when Eric Garner was confronted for his petit misdeed, he would reflect on the mentoring of a man like Jesus Christ helping him fully understand scriptures like Romans 8:1? Maybe, if he wasn’t so busy with other activities, the Reverend Al Sharpton would have had an opportunity to share this and other scripture with Eric Garner.
No, like so many others, they were brainwashed by cultural ignorance as children. Even after they crossed the age border between child and adult, they chose to continue the deadly thought and belief process. These sentiments and storylines of ignorant heritage thinking are the problem. These “leaders”, like Obama, Holder, Sharpton and de Blasio, et al are being extremely reckless with the story fabric of society and the delicate balance of freedom and social enforcement that our Constitutional rights guarantee. Go back to the days of Hitler, Pol Pot, Gaddafi, Hussein and so many others that “led” their people with their ideology and rhetoric. Were those historical leaders right? No. Could they do what they did? Yes, their laws protected them. Might makes right. Is that what we are saying? But, this is wear ignorance comes in. America does not recognize the rise of the next Pol Pot in its own Country. Pol Pot didn’t walk into Cambodia one day and start killing people and at the end of that day sit in the seat of that country’s power. No, people let him. People encouraged him. One man… hear me on this, one man CANNOT become a dictator unless the people want to be dictated to. One man cannot destroy the world unless we let him. Silence is compliance, just ask the kid being bullied.
I want people to explore their thoughts, feeling and ideologies through expression. Absent differing ideas, we would still be selling people for the fields. Absent the welcoming of the discomfort of new ideas, women might be required to stay inside the home. Without the encouragement of new ideas, we would certainly be in a much different place today. But, as we must strive to embolden thought and expression, we must also put in place speed bumps of thought/deed through parenting, social constraint and social pressure. We cannot rely on laws to ensure safe, productive and flourishing society. A society of properly prepared and guided children would yield a society that had very little need for laws, jails or punishment. But, that utopian leaning society only comes from the efforts of ALL of the people. We cannot expect to act hedonistically without also expecting to receive a bill for the time-out we experience from acting irresponsibly.
I wish for every person to arrive in the kingdom. I pray for all of those in positions of authority in our lives. I wish no harm to anyone, even my enemies and even those who have committed horrible transgressions against people. Further, I pray that the power brokers of our culture like Mr. Sharpton. I pray that he would find strength to put down the comfort that his fame identity has bought him through his misguided efforts to fan the fear and fires of hate and racial tension. I pray that the Reverend Al Sharpton would open a Bible and read Colossians 3:13. I pray that President Obama would be the leader of the American vision that he promised. Perhaps he could take a page out of one of his predecessor’s book when he warned us, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Abraham Lincoln. OR another further back in our nation’s history who said “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
So America, as we climb further down the hole of destruction, depravity, hatred and evil; will you say, “No!”? Will you withstand and muster the strength to endure the inevitable discomfort of being the one standing up against the bully of America’s growing PC, progressive, and evil culture? Will you be able to find the courage stand up and call out those who are wrong and do the more difficult task to help them get right? It is easy to point the finger online or at the TV, but do you have the character and constitution to confront the ones in your family, in your circles of friends, in your churches and workplaces? If we choose not to be the change necessary and we choose comfort over weariness derived from necessary efforts… Well, if we continue to choose to be silent and idle, we will not be “we” but rather someone else’s annoying and temporary “them”. I promise you, when that times comes, “they” will not care what your Constitutional Rights were.
— R. A. Grier