ACHTUNG: The following is not a fair and balanced story. It is an editorial by the editor.
Though I p
ublished an opinion piece from a quasi-celebrity this week, I despise the alarming frequency in which famous peoples’ comments on serious issues of the day are distributed in the media.
I have grown exceedingly weary of Facebook memes quoting the likes of Chuck Norris and Clint Eastwood on the right and Jane Fonda and Kanye West on the left, as if these rich, privileged and sheltered people really understand the important political and economic issues we face in these United States of America.
In a rare move for townbroadcast, I asked Jalen Kisner, best known here as a terror on the offensive and defensive lines on the gridiron, if he’d allow me to pass along comments he made on Facebook in the wake of the police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
“Always consult celebrities… they know what’s best.” — From “The Good Consumer” video
In this case, I think of Jalen Kisner as more than just a local celebrity, a collegiate football player. I think of him as having a special and interesting point of view about what’s been going on because he is one of a very few African Americans who grew up around here in a white household and a predominantly white school.
Jalen didn’t disappoint. He let his feelings be known that he and many friends who also are people of color seem to have different reactions than white people. He has close ties to both groups.
Jalen seems to be telling us we still have a serious race problem in this country. I think he’s right. We’ve been in denial for a long time, suffering a national disease that stretches as far back as the Civil War and beyond.
I just don’t seen how we treat people of color in the same way as Caucasians. I honestly believe if those two black men who were shot and killed this past week were white, the outcomes would have been different — they’d be alive and perhaps facing charges, but at least have a chance for justice.
This goes back to Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed by a guy who since has shown himself to be thug. It goes back to the guy who was selling loose cigarettes on the street. It goes back to the 12-year-old boy in Cleveland. They didn’t deserve to die, all three were unarmed. If they were committing wrongdoings, each should have been given a fair trial.
Furthermore, it didn’t seem as though there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about shooting deaths until five police officers tragically were killed afterward by a lone gunman. So it just doesn’t feel like all lives matter.
I’ve long believed we’ve had a serious problem with racism in this country ever since it was founded, supposedly by a group of great men with vision. What we fail to understand is that many of the Founding Fathers had slaves. And those rights we cherish in the first 10 amendments in 1789 applied only to free, white males at least 21 years old and landowners. All rights that have been won since for those excluded have been earned by grass-roots movements of the people, not from lawmakers.
We are guilty of being delusional and practicing hubris when we crow about all the wonderful freedoms we have in this great land, while at the same time brush aside all evidence to the contrary.
Somehow, what people say in the aftermath of tragedy matters a great deal, but calls to do something about our illness are met with silence and indifference.
Alcoholics Anonymous has preached the gospel of owning your disease and then dealing with it. But it doesn’t look like we will.
Tragedies like the ones we witnessed this past week are the result. And they will continue. Talk is cheap. Hate speech is lethal. We need to focus on what we can do to heal the divide that still exists.
I agree that we have a racial divide caused by racism in this country. But, we would be remiss if we left out the fact that there are some in the Black Community that are as racist as America’s White Racist population. We rarely if ever mention that portion of people that add to this problem. And to me, that is as problematic to solving our racial divide. If we are ever going to solve this problem, or if it is even a problem that will ever be solved, there has to be honest discussion and an effort to eliminate that racism as well.
And let us not forget that America has made some great strides. We have a Black President. That did not happen without overwhelming numbers of White People voting for him. This White Boy did. His current popularity does not come solely from the Black Community, so again some evidence that the problem may not be as widespread as all the agitators in our society would want us to believe. In my opinion, our continued negativity, as well as a desire for one of the players to always give in and own up goes a long way toward inhibiting any progress toward more progress.
You’re correct, the president you voted for, foments hate speech and hate by his actions in speaking of cases in the past that he was on the wrong side in every instance. The police acted “stupidly”, “they rushed to judgment”, etc. I think the most influential among us, or president, is getting his wish – to fundamentally change this country. Everyone thought it would be for the better, in every case, it has been for the worse. Poorer economy, more people earning less, more illegal immigration, more refugees whom we know nothing about (are they planted terrorists – who knows! And Mrs. Clinton wants to increase the amount!).
I knew Barak Hussein Obama for what he was – a radical Marxist, before he was elected.. I was 100% correct then, and electing another Marxist – Mrs. Clinton – would be another term of no-growth, hate filled, division policies so loved by Democrats. If you want to see change and vote “D” again, the definition of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is idiocy.
Look at all the division and unrest in the cities and states – all run by Democrats. The Democrat party of old is not the Democrat or today – they are radicals trying to divide and tear this country apart… and they are doing a fine job of it.