US VS. THEM IN AMERICA

While I truly am tired of the division between liberals and conservatives in America today I felt it necessary to list a few of our major differences.  It hasn’t always been this way. Before America elected our first president of color, Obama, and before Russia helped elect our first president of ill-repute and ill-temper, Trump, those differences weren’t typically a catalyst for hate between the two political philosophies. But today sadly we are as divided as I’m sure they were back in April of 1861 when the Civil War started, and we may yet fight another civil war on American soil if something doesn’t give; if people don’t settle down, start to talk calmly, rationally and honestly LISTEN to each other.

The differences between all of us as individuals is far less than our similarities however it seems that the division between liberal and conservative indicates that even though we all share basic needs and desires that when it comes to politically we are as far apart as our sun is from the center of our galaxy; perhaps even further apart than that.

I know what I’m about to share will anger some but that’s not the point of it. The point of it is to get an overview, from a distance, of what exactly the people of this great country want in a country and in a society.

• ·      Liberals want total equality for all human beings; not only in the eyes of the law of the land but also in the hearts and minds of the people who share this land and in how we treat one another.
• ·     Conservatives want to say that there is equality but want to make sure that people with white skin have all the power, receive the most opportunities for improvement of their lives and appear to fear the idea that all men are created equal in a practical, everyday life kind of way.
• ·       Liberals will tend to ‘own’ their white privilege and have a desire to change the system so that white privilege is a thing of the past.
• ·    Conservatives are in complete and total denial that such a thing as white privilege exists, get  angry whenever it’s mentioned and behave as if to point white privilege out is to mount a campaign against them and all white people.
• ·      Liberals believe that our borders should be secure, but that we should always observe the tenets as laid out by our forefathers to continue to be the one safe place on earth where people can come to be free and to make their lives better; to become a part of what is America.  Liberals mostly agree that immigration laws need to be overhauled to make it easier, not harder, for honest, decent people from other countries to enter the country legally.
• ·    Conservatives choose to fear all ‘foreigners’, especially those who don’t speak English, don’t have white skin or don’t follow the same religion as they do (i.e. Christianity), and want to build walls around our country to keep new people out. It appears as if they have the attitude that now that their family is in America, after emigrating here from somewhere else, no more people should be allowed to come here.
• ·       Liberals want our taxes to fund programs that help ALL citizens have a healthier more productive life, while helping those in need have a better life and don’t mind paying a few dollars more in taxes to benefit from programs that benefit EVERYONE, not just people in need (i.e. Medicare for all). 
• ·    Conservatives want tax cuts and don’t want any of the taxes we pay to go to help people who are struggling to survive through ill health, a disability, a lost job or a bad economy; unless who needs help is them. For conservatives it’s every person for themselves, except themselves.
• ·   Liberals are for a strong military and don’t mind funding it, BUT require sensible distribution of funds that come from our taxes and accountability of the military when it comes to the spending of tax dollars.
• ·     Conservatives want to give most tax dollars collected to military because they are sure that most other countries are our enemy, are dangerous, and that we must have a strong military to defend ourselves against our enemies.
• ·       Liberals have a great deal of respect and love for our flag and for those who serve it be it in the military or as a political leader. But liberals understand that when the flag, a representation of everyone in America and American values, is not representing all Americans, isn’t representing justice for all and isn’t representing core human values that we, because of the First Amendment, have the right to refuse to acknowledge the flag until it once again flies for everyone equally and justice is served for everyone.
• ·     Conservatives say they have a great deal of respect for our flag and for those who serve it but use the flag and our military to sow discord and to measure the patriotism of others by. The flag for conservatives is more of a weapon to use against others than a unifying symbol of the core human values we have sworn to uphold and when necessary, to question.
• ·      Liberals, as a rule and usually in the majority, want to have civil discourse to bring out issues that relate to everyone so that both sides can be heard and hopefully a mutually beneficial and satisfying solution can be reached.
• ·     Conservatives, as a rule and usually in the majority, claim the right to be rude, insulting and hateful to those who don’t agree with them while demanding that all others who don’t agree with them show them the utmost respect and change their views.

I’m certain that the list is much longer and is full of many extremely important issues that concern people on both sides of the equation, however this is all I can think of now. Again, the list is not mean to divide, although in some ways it probably will, but is meant to be informative and hopefully a catalyst for civil discussion.

I’m also certain that I have some things wrong about both liberals and conservatives but I have only the experience of my personal interactions with people on both sides to go on. While some assumptions may be made, and may be incorrect, the list is based on issues and discussions I have personally had with many, many people on social media and face to face.

SEEING SKIN COLOR - THERE IS NO RACIST GENE

I used to think, and to believe, that not seeing the color of other people’s skin was a way to contribute to the growing number of people who are building bridges between their white selves and people of color in the ongoing effort to fix the racism issue; at least here in the states.  I really believed that by not seeing that someone else had different color skin I was being forward thinking, open minded and was showing that I was not among those who knowingly or not are racist. 

I really thought that this was how I could best be a soldier in the war against racism. I think now that I was wrong. I meant well, but I was dead wrong.

I say I was wrong because to choose not to see a person’s skin color at all was in a way an insult to who they are. Our skin color, which no one has by choice, is an integral part of who we are and how we move in the world. It’s an outward advertisement of our ancestry and what ethnic group we may belong to by virtue of our DNA.  I started to see how insulting it might be to a person of color to only see them without their skin color, as if it was something negative to be ignored. By doing that I would basically be saying to them that the color of their skin wasn’t good enough and if I see them as white like me or to have no skin color at all then I’ll better be able to connect with them and relate to them. 

I saw that this way of seeing things might be considered racist by those people on the receiving end of this philosophy and I decided that perhaps there is another way to show my desire to connect with and relate to people who are by virtue of their ethnicity different than myself.  Then it occurred to me that the best thing to do, for me personally at least, was to see their skin color and to appreciate it for its tone, its depth, its beauty and how it compliments who they are.  I have all my life said, who knows where I got this from other than inside my own head and heart, that in my opinion on the whole there were more truly strikingly beautiful black women than white women and I guess what I mean by that is that I’ve always been drawn to tribal, exotic people who were different than myself and most of those tribal exotic people have much darker skin than my own lily-white skin.

In any case, it is my philosophy and how I choose to be in the world to SEE other people’s skin color: not in a way to be set apart from them but to appreciate that aspect of their being in an effort to be a part of them, a part of this beautifully diverse group of beings we know as humanity.  A kinship perhaps where it's evident that one of us got dad's eyes and the other got mom's hair color but still related; an acknowledgment that we are ALL human and by virtue of our DNA are all related, all kin, all basically the same in so many ways that truly matter.

In closing I’d just like to share my dream for humanity. My dream for humanity, well one of my biggest dreams, is that at some point (hopefully in my lifetime) that skin color will not be an issue for anyone and most importantly won’t be an issue of shame or uneasiness for those people who aren’t white. The idea that white skin is the most desirable skin color is simply something that small minded white men who felt the need to be superior cooked up that planted the seed that became racism. White skin IS NOT the most desirable skin color but it is simply one skin tone/color among many, many, many that are all equally beautiful, all equally desirable and should be all equally accepted as ‘normal’ by human beings around the world. This division by skin color doesn’t exist absent the ideas and ideals of human beings. Despite the experts who claim that racism in a naturally occurring condition of the human race I believe that it is not natural in the very least and that when humanity chooses to stop judging others by their skin color or ethnicity and start judging them on their character that then and only then will we achieve a level of evolution that is long overdue.

There is NO racist gene. It’s a learned trait and even when someone has been taught to be racist they can stop being racist. Just because a thing has always been or is now doesn’t mean it always must be that way.  Let us begin, one by one, to BE the change we seek to find in the world by making the choice to not only see the color of other people’s skin but to embrace it wholly as a part of who they are and is one of the many things that makes them so beautiful.