Imagine for a moment that someone is bulldozing the graves
of YOUR family. In addition, they are
doing it to build a giant oil pipeline under your property, and your only
source of drinking water. Then do a
little research on ongoing oil leaks and spills and the effect on drinking
water and human health. How would you
feel about that? Would you put your body
on the line to make it stop?
Imagine your brother/father/son is driving and his car
breaks down on the highway. He is trying
to get help and at last the police arrive.
Instead of helping they shoot him dead.
He is unarmed and not committing a crime, just trying to get
somewhere. How would you feel about
that?
What if it kept happening, not only to your loved one,
but to other people’s loved ones who look like you. If the perpetrators were rarely held
accountable, how would you feel? How
would you feel about sending your black child to school, to the grocery store,
to the movies? Would you worry? Be honest.
How would you feel about this country?
Imagine you lived somewhere that was unsafe and you had
to leave the only home you had ever known, so you and your children could be
safe? You go to a foreign country, and
you’re scared. You don’t speak the
language, but at least you are alive.
You take any job you can get because you are trying to survive and
support your family. You don’t have any
recourse if your employer mistreats you or you are injured on the job. You are treated like scum and accused of
“taking” other people’s jobs. You live
in constant fear of being caught, even though you aren’t a criminal, just a
human seeking refuge. One day you come
home and your spouse is gone. S/he has
been picked up by immigration and is facing deportation. One of your children, your youngest, was born
on US soil and is a citizen. You live in
fear that he will come home to find the rest of the family detained. Yes, that happens.
Imagine you move to a country that is predominantly
Muslim. People hate you for your
religion. You are blamed for all sorts
of violence that you did not commit.
People have preconceived notions and stereotypes about you, and hate you
on sight because of your clothing. They
don’t care that you work every day, go home and cook dinner for your kids, do
community work, like to paint, love your grandparents, or help strangers
because you are nice person. They
decide, based on your religion, that you are a bad person. How would you feel? Would you feel safe? Would you feel free?
As a middle-class white grandma, I have lived none of
this experience. But I don’t have to
belong to one of these groups to realize that THIS IS NOT A FREE COUNTRY or
these things would not be taking place.
You see, I have privilege. Nobody is building an oil pipeline through my
white neighborhood, including through the cemetery down the road where my
parents are buried. I can’t
imagine.
I don’t experience the daily micro-aggressions that so
many others do. I have privilege. I
didn’t earn it, and I’m not special. I
just got lucky. Therefore, I have a
responsibility. That responsibility is
to point out that THIS IS NOT A FREE COUNTRY.
Nobody is obligated to salute the flag, stand for or recite the pledge
of allegiance, or stand for our racist national anthem.
If you are one of the people who are “outraged” by people
who don’t salute the flag, I have a question for you: do you think that people
fought and died to support uprooting graves and poisoning the drinking water of
children? Was it so someone with a badge
can kill innocent people with impunity?
Because if you think this is a free country, YOU are part of the
problem.
Maybe you got lucky too.
So you just assume it’s just as easy for everyone else. It’s not.
The current attempted land-grab at the Standing Rock
Sioux Reservation, the modern-day lynchings of black citizens by police, and
the oppression, stereotyping and hate taking place is not freedom. It’s an international embarrassment, and
believe me, the world is watching. Ask a
Syrian what they think of the American definition of “freedom,” which seems to
involve their houses being bombed and their families being killed. Don’t even get me started on our “efforts” in
other countries.
Listen and LISTEN GOOD.
The people who refuse to stand for the national anthem are HEROES. They are speaking out against a broken
system. The anthem doesn’t care. It’s a song, just so you know. They aren’t disrespecting the flag, or a
song, or you. They are speaking out, for
all of the above, and more.
They have more patriotism in their little finger than you
will ever have, because they have courage.
You are not listening to what is
being said, and you are appointing yourself judge, jury, and executioner
without even trying to understand someone else’s experience. They want this country to be great, and they
have the intellect to understand that standing up for a song doesn’t make our
country great. That’s what we call
putting on a show. What makes our
country great is for every single person to be heard, for innocent people not
to die, for kids to have clean water and safe food, to be able to worship as
they choose, for families to be safe and together, and for the police to be
helpful to all. That’s freedom.
Spare me your hypocritical rantings. Do you know how stupid you sound? Heads up, you are on the wrong side of
history. Forty years from now, the
people who acted like you, who opposed marriage equality and humane immigration
policy and non-racist laws, will be about as respected as the ones who
tormented Ruby Bridges.
Yep, good, upstanding Americans right there. I bet every “patriot” in these pictures stood
for the national anthem and was very self-righteous about it. Wrong side of history, people.
Well, the world will change without you. More and more people will refuse to pledge
allegiance to a broken system, and human rights will continue to be on the
forefront of our conscience. People are
waking up to the injustice, and thankfully, standing alongside those who are
brave enough to speak out.
Yes, all lives matter, but you never have to convince
anyone that white lives matter, do you?
That’s already understood. Yes,
all lives matter, including immigrant lives, Native lives, gay lives, veteran
lives, Muslim lives, Latino lives, poor lives, and Black lives. The fact that we have to point it out is sad,
but apparently we do, and point it out we will.
The institutions of power in this country have killed, poisoned,
harassed, and enslaved enough people, and we will continue to speak out.
Welcome to the new civil rights movement. You don’t have to like it. The rest of us don’t care if you do or
don’t. It’s long overdue. Every single person deserves a voice, and the rest of us will stand strong (or sit as appropriate) to ensure they have it.
No comments:
Post a Comment