This is America

If the justice system is comfortable with potentially killing an innocent man, what is the system?

If men can be ordered to die despite compelling proof that they deserve to live, what is life worth?

If the law does not provide justice, then why is it law?

Because this is America.




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This Is Law

Is being colorblind worse than being racist?

I wondered that recently.

Is believing that race is not a factor, or not a large factor in the way the world works as bad as actively practicing racism?

I can't decide. I do know that dealing with colorblind people is just as frustrating as dealing with a racist. Dealing with someone who actively denies reality, the reality that obviously exists based on objective facts, is just as frustrating as dealing with someone who is actively working to benefit one racial group over another.

I don't care if they have good intentions. I don't care if they are nice people. Their refusal to deal with reality, to acknowledge and handle the problems that exist in this world is dangerous. It's danger to me, it's a danger to my family and it's a danger to any thinking person seeking to improve the world around them.

This is law. And I stand by it.


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Sometimes I...

Sometimes the anger turns to sadness, and the tears just can't be held back.

Sometimes when you truly grasp how long this thing has been hurting people and destroying families, it can be too much.

Sometimes when you catch a glimpse of how many lives have been ruined, you wonder at God's plan.

Sometimes you thirst for vengeance.


Sometimes you need revenge like babies need love. Sometimes hurting others feels like the only thing that will soothe your hurt.

Sometimes it's shocking how far reaching this thing is, how it has stretched across continents and countries.

Sometimes you just can't stand to have another person whose benefited from this thing try to deny their favored position and avoid any responsibility for doing the right thing.

Sometimes it's so easy to hate.

Sometimes, I cry. Big, crocodile tears in-between sobs that shake my chest. Not for me, or for anyone I know, but for people I've never met and will never meet, but whose pain makes my very heart constrict.

Sometimes I wonder.

I wonder.

And

I cry.




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Reasonable People Might Agree

I didn't have to teach my sons how to discriminate.

I didn't sit them down and tell them to establish different rules for themselves than the rules they apply to other people. I didn't teach them to try to scheme to find ways to increase their advantage in every situation. And I definitely didn't teach them to allow others to suffer so they could profit. They came into this world as so-called innocent babes already inclined to do all of those things.

My job has been to try to curb their natural impulses.

Often, when we discuss racism and discrimination, it becomes a conversation about people's intentions, their hearts, and their upbringing. People take offense at the idea that they may be discriminating because that accusation is viewed as a direct assault on their morality. They reject claims of discrimination by noting that they have nothing against certain types of people, and are only living their lives as good human beings.

That assumes that human beings are "good."

I know many people don't like the whole "original sin" and "inherently evil human" concept. But, I believe in it. I think the problem is with the definition of "evil." Even doesn't only mean genocide and rape, it also means the opposite of good. So, if good behavior involves being generous and kind, evil involves being stingy and cruel. All of us struggle with evil, and it's not something we learn from watching television.

My sons like to have the advantage. They create rules for their games that benefit them, and change those rules as soon as the expected benefit isn't realized. They demand that their sibling be punished for infractions that they themselves beg to avoid punishment for committing. They are constantly seeking an advantage, constantly looking to block their peers advantage and always keeping score.

In short, they are little humans. They were born with vestigial forms of this behavior, and as they've aged, it's only gotten more serious.

This has provided me with some interesting insights into the behavior of adults. I've always known that most racism and discrimination comes from a desire to establish and maintain supremacy, but watching my children confirms it. More importantly, it confirms that avoiding racism and discrimination requires an intense desire and effort because that aim is not "natural."

That's why it's dangerous when people don't want to discuss or think about racism. It's dangerous when they refuse to educate themselves about historic and current power dynamics. It represents a threat because without that effort, it's impossible fight against these twin evils. Until people come to grips with the human instincts that lurk in their hearts, and decide that those impulses are incorrect, no change can occur.


One of the authors on a blog I read likes to use a quotation that basically says that cheating begins as soon as monogamy stops being reasonable. For many folks, evil begins as soon as being good stops being reasonable. The problem is that most of us don't understand how we truly define reasonable.



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