He is not wrong on any of these points. The mob mentality of certain disappointing Venn diagrams of people I know has been eye opening. It is one of the reasons I have cut back as much as I have concerning Facebook – the people. Now that I have seen their true faces – the ones that they used to hide – I find I cannot tolerate them for extended periods of time. If their transgressions are too much they are banished and blocked, which is mutually beneficial I don’t miss them and they don’t miss me. Is this how echo chambers happen? Sure – but I am DONE with entertaining flat-out racists & radicles. If that means I’m in an echo chamber at least I know its not in theirs.
But, getting back to my friend’s post…
I used to think so much better of us. I thought that we were better than who we are as a people – as a nation. I thought that people were treated fairly no matter what shade of the rainbow their skin was. It turns out I was in a cocoon – a comfortable, white chrysalis – wearing my rose-colored goggles. I was wrong. I didn’t know any better. I grew up. I matured a bit and was able to see the cracks in everything around me & I began to question myself about those cracks & everything I took as indefatigable truth. The world is a much larger place than the one we are presented with as children or adolescents.
We have a MAJOR underlying problem of systemic injustice right here in the United States of America. COVID-19 exposed a great many of our most dirty secrets. Fears, superstition, racial injustice, hidden hatreds, civil rights, healthcare, science denying, selfishness, conspiracy zealots incapable of maintaining a baseline reality, domestic terrorists – yeah, this is America. Not all America – but the America that we are presenting to each other and to the world. When people do not feel as if they are in “control” they are susceptible to wrong thinking – susceptible to falling for opinions rather than thought; because, if anything, social media has taught us is that opinions are so much easier to have than thoughts. BUT there is hope. I truly believe that this is a time where we can do something we need to do as a society – recognize that we have problems – SERIOUS problems; because if we can recognize that there are problems – identify what they are – then we can do something about them and start to build a nation where we can TRULY say that we stand for “Liberty and justice for all”. That words such as, “We The People” stand for ALL people, because they must or they mean nothing. We need the courage of our convictions. Not the situational ethics that have suited us for years.
Things are changing – COVID-19 saw to that. Our dirty secrets are not secrets any longer. They have been laid bare. Since they are in the light let us work together to make them better, to fix them – all people of good will working together for not simply our own benefit but for the benefit of all. We are at a unique point in history where we can & must recognize these issues – our problems and do something positive to change them. We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our country, we owe it to the world, and most of all we owe it to the future – to our children. This was part of Martin Luthor King Jr.’s message, “There is nothing to keep us from remolding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.” That is from his book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” I’ve had enough chaos. It’s far past time we started truly building that community.
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