Fighting for an unjust cause just doesn’t cut it. Neither does ignoring the fight for a just cause

The nation is living through a debate on whether or not to remove statues and names from schools honoring Confederate generals. Did I say debate? I meant to say, free-for-all.

Blacks, and many whites, say they are offensive. Other whites say they are a part of our heritage, and that to remove them is to deny that heritage.

On August 17, 2017, the president said "You can't change history, but you can learn from it."

This past Wednesday, June 24, he scolded states for allowing "roving gangs of wise guys, anarchists & looters" to remove statues, saying "all represent our History & Heritage, both the good and the bad," proving he was wrong in 2017. He hasn’t learned a damn thing about history or our heritage.

History is both good and bad. There is no denying that. In general, though, we build monuments to highlight the good aspects of history. The bad aspects should not be forgotten, but they shouldn’t be exalted.

In a 1964 decision, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously refrained from defining pornography, but suggested, “He’d know it if he saw it.”

Offensive seems to have fallen into the same category in that it means all things to all different people. Some can’t define pornography, but most people agree that it is bad. 

Defining offensive doesn’t appear to carry the same stigma or sense of urgency, although it should.

Not everything that’s offensive to someone is necessarily offensive to someone else. That said, no one is suggesting we put it up to a vote. What’s needed are guidelines, universal guidelines that don’t change as political norms change.

It takes two to tango

Race relations in America is never going to be a graceful waltz, but it doesn’t have to be a drunken conga line breaking apart everywhere with people falling all over each other.

Maybe a structured carefully orchestrated dance, like a tango, might be the best we can hope for.

As we all know, it takes two to tango.

In a race relations tango, the two participants are the long arm of the law—government propositioning for a dance, and the willingness of white people to accept.

How our nation has dealt with the issue of race is a 200-year awkward dance that generally has left everyone unhappy for good reason. The two participants, government and white people often appear to be tone-deaf, dancing with two left feet, and with no sense of timing, almost as if they were listening to different music.

In the years immediately preceding the Civil War, white people were split on the issue of slavery; the south was for it, the north was against it, and neither side was particularly in favor of recognizing the civil rights of Negroes. Government was neutral at best, and disinterested at worst, so for thirty years the nation staggered along allowing a very real problem to fester.

People were still split by 1861, but the government finally took a stand. Actually, two governments took two different stands. The four-year Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy decided the issue of slavery once and for all. At its conclusion, however, the people were still as divided as ever. There was dancing in northern streets, but as a nation, people were still hunkered down along their respective walls looking at an empty, uninviting dance floor.

A lot of legislative noise was heard after the war during Reconstruction, but none of it was music to the ears of southerners. Legislation regarding race in the north was non-existent. The only dancing taking place anywhere were Indian war dances, which seemed to take everyone’s minds off the still empty dance floor.

Reconstruction slipped into Jim Crow as easily as bad bitter apples rot when left untouched. The south, tired of the iron fist of the north telling them what to do, fell into old bad habits as individuals and small mobs operating more like packs of wolves began dancing to the beat of their own drummers.

Race relations took a back seat during the Jim Crow era as everyone’s attention shifted to wars and economic strife.

Congress simply tired of passing legislation as government pulled the covers over its ears so as not to hear the music. If white people were dancing at all, it was around the race issue. Everyone had retreated to their own corners. Segregation was the tune being heard in every city, north and south. Finally, the noise got too loud to ignore.

For the first half of the 20^th century, government did it best, see no evil, hear no evil routine, until suddenly the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954 caught everyone’s attention.

It caught their attention, but didn’t garner much support. For the most part, white people were still not ready to dance. A few hit the dance floor, but they were uncomfortable and looked out of place.

By the sixties, black people were screaming to get on the dance floor. Government heard their cries and again passed legislation designed to bring everyone together, but white people were still not ready. They might have been tapping their toes and snapping their fingers, but they still weren’t receptive to the government telling them they had to dance.

For the last fifty years, another problem has arisen. Government was also becoming divided. Federal laws were pushing in one direction, red-state and local legislation in another, while the strong arm of police were taking matters into their own hands. No one was dancing in the streets, but everyone was taking to the streets.

The question on everyone’s lips was, could black and white people and legislators and police ever meet each other on the dance floor, recognize a common tune, and do anything that didn’t look like a drunken conga line?

The question is still unanswered, but people are slowly pulling themselves away from the wall, inching toward to the dance floor. They are still unsure, afraid of how they will look, hesitant to be the only ones out there, but something is happening.

People—white, black and brown people—appear to be coming together, at least on the single issue of heavy-handed police violence toward blacks. Governments—federal, state and local—seem to have heard their cries, which to be honest had to be shouted at them, but at least they’re listening.

The wild cards are police unions, which in the past have always circled the wagons in defense of obviously bad cops, and the increasingly small number of whites who are not going to dance no how, nowhere, no way.

Our Constitution decreed over 200 years ago that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights. For the first time in our history millions of white and black people, marching together, seem to finally be in step with the government, admitting that as a nation we have not been true to that promise. These voices in the streets are drowning out the now small minority of people who continue to reject that promise that all men of all races have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

Too many people are dancing in the streets, and no one appears ready to go home. We just may have found a dance we can all do together. It doesn’t even have to be a tango. 

The Difference between "Sorry!" and "I'm sorry."

There are a million and one ways to say something stupid, or do something stupid. That’s what free will get you.

There is really only one way to apologize for saying or doing something stupid.

Before I get to that, I want to look at why apologizing seems to be so difficult.

Little children have trouble apologizing because they are embarrassed at being called out. Kids don’t like to stand out in a crowd or be singled out in even a small setting. They hate apologizing, which is why a curt “Sorry!” is sometimes the best they can do.

Adults never like admitting they were wrong. They know they can’t get away with a childish “Sorry!” So they equivoc-ate and hesit-ate and fluctu-ate—anything to keep from eating crow. Any excuse they can come up with is better than admitting guilt.

Politicians are in a class by themselves. They’re obviously adults, so they got that going against them, but their success depends on them having all the answers, always doing the right thing, and most importantly, always looking good. Politicians are convinced that admitting a mistake is worse than making a mistake and is always a bad look. They might be adults, but they are acting like children.

Our president has never apologized for anything in his life. He doesn’t see the need to because he has never done anything wrong. 

For a man who has never been wrong, he apparently surrounds himself with people that can do nothing right. He is forever calling out those around him for the sins he commits.

He can be excused because he is nothing more than a child in a seventy-four year old body. He is actually worse than a child because he can’t even say “Sorry!” and walk away.

So, we have a president who believes he is always right and enabling politicians unable to call him out when he’s wrong. No one apologizes for anything.

If only, someone could show them the way.

Fortunately, now there is.

Recently General Mark A. Milley did something very unbecoming of the highest ranking military man in the country. He allowed himself to be used by the president for an obviously political photo-op. Making matters worse, the senseless show he participated in resulted in peaceful protesters being physically abused, a Bible being desecrated, and a church being high-jacked for political gains.   

Everything about it was wrong and everyone told him so.

He could have made excuses: The president is my commander. I was only obeying an order. It didn’t seem wrong at the time. 

He could have feigned ignorance at the damage he did: If I offended anyone, I’m sorry. It was a confusing time, and I must have gotten caught up in the confusion. I thought we were simply going to inspect the troops.

General Milley didn’t say any of these things. That’s because you don’t become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by acting like a child, or making excuses, or worrying about your image, or behaving like our president. You get there by knowing right from wrong and not being afraid to admit when you’ve done something wrong. 

Everyone makes mistakes. Even generals. Even presidents. 
Especially this president.

This is how General Milley apologized.

“I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from.” 

This is what a good apology sounds like. It’s also what separates the men from the boys. 

Can you hear me, now? Not Really.

     In 2013, Representative King (IA) infamously said, young girls coming into the U.S. from Mexico “...had calves as big as cantaloupes from lugging drugs across the border.”

     He would not have spoken these extremely hurtful, not to mention stupid, words if he wasn’t certain his constituents would not only approve, but also reward him for them. He was right. They returned him to Congress in 2014, 2016, and 2018.

     For a long time, some would say, too long, it’s been impossible for Republicans to say anything so outrageous that their base would reject them.

     This was good for them because Republicans seem to be uniquely adept at saying things that make no sense. What isn’t unique about Republicans is that like Democrats, Independents, Whigs in the old days, and the Green Party in recent days, they like to talk.

     They kiss babies, eat food they wouldn’t otherwise go near with a ten-foot pole, take endless selfies, and shake countless hands; but most of all they like to hear themselves talk.

     Unlike Democrats who are known for their in-fighting—that’s what a big tent will do for you—Republicans are known for their unity. Reagans eleventh commandment, speak no ill-will of other Republicans has been their guiding principle for over fifty years.

     This has never been more evident than with the current president. Trump has said things so mystifying, so beyond the pale, so utterly ridiculous as to make normal people cringe, yet somehow, Republicans have always found a way to defend him.     

     Senator Graham called Trump an idiot during the 2016 campaign, adding he’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot, who will destroy the Republican Party. Today, because Republicans can’t afford to have Trump's base turn against them, Graham can’t say enough good things about the idiotic, race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. Idiots don’t generally start making sense when they turn seventy. A smarter Graham would understand this.

     Senator Cruz continued to support him through three-plus years of lunacy because the very thought of Trump’s base turning on him was worse than having to endure Trump insults against both his wife and father during the campaign.

     And Trump’s base will make them pay. Those who have stood up to Trump, and when I say stand up I refer to the most minuscule exhibition of courage one could possibly imagine, nevertheless, they have seen their careers ended, primaried out of existence so to speak.

     However, just as Trump appears to be self-destructing before our very eyes, his base is also beginning to crumble, albeit ever so slowly. His poll numbers, never high to begin with, are beginning to fall. People who once proudly wore tee-shirts bragging, “I'm Deplorable” are having second thoughts. They might not be saying it out loud, but the times, they are achangin’.

      The only thing worse than being deplorable is having to admit that the man you voted for no longer meets your deplorable standards. They’d rather you just forget.

     Just because his base can walk away, slither into the darkness and hope no one notices, doesn’t mean everyone can be so lucky.

     As Trump’s base abandons him, the big question is where the Congressmen and women and senators go, after bowing so cowardly before his unholy altar for three excruciating years. Is Trump’s base turning only on him? Do the sheep in Congress fight to hold on to the ones still loyal to Trump, or do they go after the ones that have left?

     Trump’s supporters have been a big question mark from the start. Only now, Republicans are beginning to question what everyone else has questioned from the start—what’s up with Trump’s base. Republicans no longer know which way the wind is blowing, only that something is in the air.

     We are seeing the by-product of this confusion every day in the halls of Congress. Politicians who talk for a living, who thrive on hearing their own voices, who can tell a lie without even blinking an eyelash have suddenly gone mute—afraid to say the wrong thing, afraid to say the right thing, afraid to say anything.

     These habitual motor-mouths can no longer find the words, when asked to comment on the president latest act of lunacy— something they could and did do without thinking just a few months ago. The poor souls have lost their voices, the only thing that ever mattered to them. They are reduced to making excuses, where they used to make waves.

     “I didn’t hear that.”

     “I didn’t read that.”

     “I’ll get back to you.”

     “Did he say that? I don’t know. I wasn’t aware.”

     "Hmmm, sooo, ahh..."

     “I’m late for a meeting.”

     “I’m late for lunch.”

     “I’m late. I’m late. I’m late.”

     Oh, if they could just say what Senator Graham said in the 2016 campaign? Trump is an idiotic, race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. If only Republicans could cut Trump and his base loose and take their chances with those Americans who have known from day-one that Trump wasn’t going to make anything great. 

     He was only going to make us the laughing stock of the world, trample on the Constitution and tear our country apart. That’s what idiotic, race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigots do.   

Not Being a Racist is not enough

When talk of reparation starts up—and for the record, this piece is not about reparation—but when talk of reparation arises, the immediate response from many is why anyone should have to pay for someone else’s bad behavior, especially if that behavior occurred hundreds of years ago.

Valid arguments can be made for both sides—I hate to even use that expression—but reparation seen as paying off a debt is one thing. Reparation as punishment for someone else’s sin is quite another thing.

My point is there are no easy answers to complicated problems.

We are, however, responsible for our own sins, especially if we refuse to stop committing them.

Many, perhaps most, would be right declaring, “I am not a racist. I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I deplore racism.”

Well good for you. We need more like you. If you lived on an island by yourself, you would be entitled to bragging rights. Unfortunately, we are a nation with a lot of people unlike you.

A racist nation isn’t one where everyone is a racist. A racist nation is one where racism is allowed to exist, even thrive in some areas, and accepted as something we don’t condone, but can’t do anything about. If racism is present in a nation, the nation is a racist nation. Nation-building is a team sport.

Racism isn’t something that occurs over weeks, months, or years. A nation doesn’t go through a racist phase, and then suddenly shape up.

Before we even were a nation, for 157 years from 1619 to 1788, we depended on slavery to build our nation. In 1788, we became a nation dedicated to the idea that all men were created equal, but continued for the next 75 years, until 1863, to condone slavery. From 1863, the year of the Emancipation Proclamation into the 1960’s Civil Rights movement, Jim Crow laws, segregationist policies, and hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan did everything in their power to prevent blacks from exercising the rights given to them by the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments. For the last half-century many states, white supremacists groups, and yes, individual racists have continued to do everything in their power to weaken or remove entirely those rights given blacks in the 1860s and 1960s. We are the United States. 

"E pluribus unum" (Out of many, one) is a good motto when everything is going well and everyone is working together. 

"Sicut et nos omnes," (Just as one, so are we all) is what explains a bad situation we’d rather forget, or at least, ignore. A conversation about racism does not begin by pointing the finger at the other guy. It begins by admitting we have always been and continue to be a racist nation.

The only thing that changes is the personal involvement in racism as experienced by the white community. Sometimes, racism pushes everything else aside—even a pandemic. Most times, racism is so far out of mind that we might be tempted to convince ourselves it doesn’t even exists.

For blacks, racism is an ongoing way of life in the United States of America, always has been. It never goes away.

Money can help ease the pain, but money can’t make wrongs, right. No amount of money can put a black family in a white neighborhood if that neighborhood doesn’t want them. A college education cannot give a black person a job if a white employer doesn’t want to hire him. And what we continue to learn, as we have known for the last 150 years, no law can guarantee a black person his rights if a white person refused to concede them.

What we are increasingly learning is that no policeman can protect a black man if that policeman is part of the problem.

Money can’t fix the racism problem. Laws can’t fix it.

Again, we are a nation of individual, whose actions define the group. Every individual must decide, not whether he or she is a racist, but rather, do they want to live in a racist country, and if they don’t, what are they going to do about it?

I’m convinced the racists are not going to fix this problem. Introspection will not get them to where the country needs them to be. Saving the nation is more than protecting our own reputations. Racists have to know there is no place for them in this country. Non-racists have to tell them that, every chance they get.