Category Archives: Racism

America: Straying from the Faith of the Founders when it comes to caring for others

There is an argument often heard from the ultra religious and echoed by their politicians that America is a Christian nation. While it was not founded as to be a specifically and exclusively Christian nation (an argument I will save for a later posting), I wish to address how this claim is not being followed using the Christian bible so that those who claim to be Christians and claim America as a Christian nation so adamantly, while ignoring the most basic of Christian tenets, will hopefully understand how they stray from the faith they claim to follow.

Most of us know that the Puritans who came here on the Mayflower wanted the New World to be as John Winthrop called it, “A City upon a Hill.” He said that if
“we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help for us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors of God’s sake; we shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to become curses upon us until we be consumed out of the good land where we are going”.

We, as a country, have lost sight of this and are becoming like Cain after murdering his brother Abel. The wealthy of our country especially are like Cain when asked about how they are helping those less fortunate than themselves. They are like to respond in the same manner by saying, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). They are turning their backs on those who work for them as we see corporate presidents and CEOs earning millions while their workers earn hundreds of times less with many of them resorting to have to collect welfare or food stamps just to feed themselves and their families. They are supporting sweatshops where hundreds to thousands of children and women in poor countries slave in deplorable conditions to make goods that are sold for huge profits and those making the goods see nowhere near a decent wage even for the places where they live. There are people who do not have health insurance who watch their loved ones die or who themselves die for lack of money to pay for care; while certain politicians, many of whom claim to be on the side of Christian values, fight to repeal a law that would provide all people with healthcare that could save lives. Ironically, those politicians and their wealthy donors, especially those who claim to be on a higher moral plane, act like the scribes that Jesus cautions his disciples to be wary of when he said,

“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers”(Mark 12:38-40).

These people do just that. They expect to be revered, respected, and have the right to the very best while others suffer to pay bills and just to survive. They cry out that it is not fair to tax the wealthy who can afford to pay more in taxes. They also cry out that the poor are just lazy and should be able to help themselves rather than receive help from them. They make a show out of their charitable giving to those poor, but talk disparagingly about them when not in the spotlight. Look and see how generous that I am, is their mantra while their hearts are coveting more wealth that could keep the poor from their station in life.

Am I advocating that wealth is bad? Not in the least, but the greed of so many who have wealth and their desire to keep the poor down in their lives, is evil. It is not money that is evil, but the love of money that is evil according to the same scriptures that many of those keeping the poor down claim to ascribe. They say they believe in charity, but in their hearts, they do not.

They love money more than their neighbor. In doing so, they also love money more than God. If Christians are admonished to “love their neighbor” like they love themselves (Mark 12:33), then these self-righteous people either hate themselves or are being hypocritical in their faith. In addition, they—the wealthy politicians and their wealthy donors—cry about paying more in taxes while forgetting that Christians are to “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17). If money is printed by the State, then it is right and even Christian duty to pay the State their proportionately fair share of taxes.

America cannot be a Christian nation as long as these wrongs continue to occur. Until the wealthy and their political lapdogs realize that with wealth also entails responsibility to care for those who are less fortunate, as they are admonished to do in the Christian scriptures, then the claim of being a Christian nation is a farce. It is a sinful, travesty of a farce at that. As John Winthrop ends his famous sermon, he states,

“Beloved there is now sett before us life, and good, deathe and evill in that wee are Commaunded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Commaundements and his Ordinance, and his lawes, and the Articles of our Covenant with him that wee may live and be multiplyed, and that the Lord our God may blesse us in the land whether wee goe to possesse it: But if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other Gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, wee shall surely perishe out of the good Land whether wee passe over this vast Sea to possesse it;”

As a nation, we have been seduced to the worship of other Gods (power and wealth being the foremost) and the worship of profits over people, we are dooming ourselves to perish from our greed and self-love.

Is there hope? Is there hope that we can yet attain the status of being a light unto the nations? Yes, there is always hope. So long as there are those who fight the injustices in our country, there is hope. So long as there are those who stand up and speak for those who are afraid to speak or cannot speak out, there is hope. So long as there are those who defend the helpless and befriend the friendless, there is hope. So long as there are those who represent the will of the people rather than the will of corporate interests and greed, there is hope.

Where does that hope start for you? Are you willing to be a catalyst for that hope? Are you willing to be the spark that ignites the fires of a peaceful revolution for the betterment of all people? Are you willing to be the light that cuts through the darkness of despair or will you just continue to curse the darkness and, in your lack of action, be an accomplice for the darkness? You must answer these questions in the affirmative if the hope is to stay alive.

Real Americans

I recently had a person respond to a comment I made on a Facebook post deriding me for my concept of what an American is and is not. I commented that America is not what it once was and that it has gotten to be a place vastly different from where I was born and raised. This becomes even more apparent to me since I am temporarily living outside of the States due to family employment. I am gaining a much different perspective on the US while living in Canada and being able to visit my native land on occasion. What I am seeing, in addition to what I hear from my neighbors and acquaintances, saddens me sometimes when I think of the potential that exists in the United States to do so much more with the wealth that is there than what is currently occurring. What has happened to my country? To our country? Why are we acting the way we are? What exactly is a real American?

As I see this becoming more of a series of posts rather than one concise posting, I will just touch on the one concept that bothers me. That concept is what a ‘real’ American is. When I was growing up, an American was someone who was either born in the United States or immigrated to the United States and worked his or her way to citizenship. It could also be a child born overseas to US parents or even to one US parent. Sounds simple enough. I even think it is still the legal definition of what an American is. So, what happened?

The scene is becoming increasingly common. Someone asks another person the question, “What are you?” I heard this often from students I taught and even neighbors where I once lived in Florida. They asked me this. They asked others this. They did this in a quest to place a person in a box. Ironically, the people asking the question were usually white and they asked this question to someone who was not White, more than those who are white. Interesting. The concept of what a “real” American has devolved in some way to mean a person who is not Caucasian. Given the skin tone of most Native Americans is not Caucasian that makes the question both rather idiotic as well as rather insidious.

The idiocy stems from the fact that the United States is a mixture of people and cultures far beyond those from Northern Europe. The Southwestern Untied States has people from Mexico, Central and South America. They were there before the first Europeans arrived. The rest of the United States was once vastly inhabited by Native Americans who, as I mentioned before, are predominantly non-Caucasian. After Europeans arrived, many others started immigrating to the United States and settled here. Some Asians were brought over to work on the West Coast and help build the once vast railroad network. African-Americans were brought over both as slaves and some came as free persons. If something happened somewhere in the world, people came to the United States to change their lives for the better. The United States earned and enjoyed being called the Melting Pot of the world. Our country is a land of diversity. That diversity once made us great. We fought a Civil War and went through the Civil Rights movement to make all races seen as equal. It set us apart from many countries in the world where the make-up of the people is the same. Somehow, the love of our diversity has morphed into division.

Part of this idiocy has been manufactured in the form of certain media outlets attacking the skin color of our current president. He presents a quandary for what was once the majority of the American population. President Obama is neither entirely Black nor is he entirely White. He is of mixed race. That mixture seems to have scared some people who are just too xenophobic to realize that being of mixed race is okay. Perhaps these same people once advocated laws that banned intermarriage between people of different races. They saw that taboo fall with the advent of Civil Rights and dealt with it. However, when the leader of their country became someone with those qualities, they could not handle it. Therefore, we have seen a rise in those who question his citizenship and even hate him for being someone they cannot place in a box.

These same people have taken this even further and started to question their neighbors being citizens or not based on skin color or religious beliefs. Somehow, this has also changed into questioning someone’s citizenship or loyalty to his or her country. Recently, we heard of a young man who is of Mexican descent who was ridiculed when he sang the National Anthem at a basketball game. Even though he was born in the United States and is therefore a citizen, people were accusing him of being an illegal immigrant to the United States simply because of his cultural background. What difference should it make when it comes to his being an American? We are a nation of immigrants. Look at the names in the telephone directory. They are all not European names. They are names from the world pantheon of names. With those names are cultures, religions, and lifestyles that all blend to make the United States unique and wonderful. It is a shame to disparage anyone based on his or her cultural background.

Here, in Canada, the question is not asked as “What are you?”, but rather “What is your cultural background?” Yes, that may simply sound like a politically correct way to ask the same thing, but it goes beyond that. It acknowledges that the person is a human being first, and then presents a curiosity about what that person believes, practices, or lives. It is less combative, in part, due to the length of the sentence, but also due to the nature of the words used. Perhaps we, as citizens of the United States, should take this and apply it to our country. No, Canada is not perfect. No country is perfect, but imagine if we started viewing each other as people first, then whatever culture, religion, gender, gender preference, or whatever box that is needed to make us feel better. We would be better able to define a ‘real’ American as someone who loves our country because she or he was born here or immigrated here for a better life.

A Country on the Verge

The United States is becoming more and more of a country on the verge of revolution on a number of fronts. The attacks on women’s rights. The resurgence of blatant and covert racism. The increasingly noticeable divide between the wealthy, the working class, and the poor. The increase in lack of tolerance between people for a myriad of other reasons. At the forefront of this schism in our country is a small group of powerful people who are causing it. They call themselves patriots and even use the political designation of Tea Party because they believe they are defending freedom while talking away freedoms. What they are doing is turning our country into one where there are only those who are wealthy and privileged and those who are not. There is still hope for the US, though. It comes through having to combat their tactics and educate those who are falling for their sharp rhetoric of concealed lies. The media they use is slick and showy. They prey on the emotions of people without allowing logic to prevail. It is up to all concerned, intelligent citizens to fight back with words that are emotionally charged, but logically based.
First thing is to realize that they hate logic. A recent voting situation in Wisconsin points this out well. The head of one of their houses of state legislature demanded a vote on the requirement of ultrasounds on women wanting abortions without allowing for debate. His very action of denying debate itself should cause Americans who believe in a representative government to cringe with fear. Without intelligent debate, ideology can be forced through and made policy. Too many voters have elected people who said what they wanted to hear rather than actually participated in debating the pros and cons with the issues at hand. Too many voters have succumbed to allowing those who donate large sums of money to politicians dictate what those politicians make into law. It has to stop and it has to stop now! Our country cannot afford to be railroaded into ideology instead of good policy that benefits everyone in the country as whole.
Next, is to be heard. The one thing that these ideological politicians and donors do not want is a vocal and persistent opposition. There needs to be more people to speak up and, if need be, out shout the ideology of those causing the demise of our country and make people wake up and listen with the ear of wisdom to what is being said and the ramifications of policy before it is made into law. Silence is the same as acquiescence. If good people do not speak up, then freedoms will be replaced by the wants of special interests. When the media sound boxes for the Tea Party start trying to shut the voices of reason down, then the voices of reason must resist and be heard. Truth must be brought out over their half-truths and lies. If it takes people standing on corners with signs, then so be it. If it takes people going door to door, talking, and handing out flyers, then so be it. It is not going to be cheap, but it needs to be done.
In addition, it needs funding. Unfortunately, those who support free thinking and logical approaches to life are not always the wealthiest. There has to be a way to get the word out in a less expensive, but more efficient manner. People could donate time or talents to get the real truth out. It has been proven that grassroots efforts work, but they take people who are willing and able to coordinate others and get the word out. It takes people who can speak well as well as those who can write well. It takes those who can approach a stranger, even one who might be negative to new ideas, and meet them where they are and make them think more about issues even if it does not change their mind about them.
Next, the need for education is paramount. Ignorance is the fuel for the rhetoric of those affiliated with the Tea Party. If the public remains uneducated or undereducated, then they can control them easier. This is probably why so many of them support high stakes standardized testing over actually educating the children of America. People have relearn how to think for themselves again rather than blindly following their leaders. Our country was greater when we had thinkers and those thinkers actually acted for the benefit of others, rather than their own profit margins. We need to remind those who follow blindly that doing so leads to the detriment of our country rather than its prosperity.
Finally, we need to bring back a sense of community in our country again. Sure, we band together for the most part when disaster strikes, but we need to rebuild a sense that we are all in this together when it comes to our daily lives. We need to relearn to cooperate with our neighbors and work with them to help all of us live better lives. We need to practice charity for all rather than a select few. We need to define ourselves as Americans rather than anything else. Real Americans help one another. If we did not, then we would not have survived all the wars, disasters, and attacks we have faced as a country.
This needs to be our new revolution. A revolution to take America back from all the special interests and make it a country that shines again like a beacon for the world as a partner with the world to make it a better place for all human beings. We need to stand up for one another against the political ideology of a few who would like nothing better than to split us farther apart and into complacency, labels, and stereotypes.

Classy Kid vs. Racist Jerks

Recently, at an NBA game between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, a young man-made headlines for singing the national anthem. He did not forget the words. In fact, he sang them very well for a young man of his age in front of thousands of people. What he made headlines for was the reactions of some of the racists that fill our country and bring it down to levels of unintelligence not seen since the first man walked the earth.
People saying he had no right to sing the national anthem because he was not American enough subjected the young man, born in San Antonio, but of Mexican heritage, to racial slurs. Yes, you read that correctly, a number of racists that tweeted and commented about his performance did not consider him American enough about his singing the national anthem simply because of his racial background. Since when did being American equate with being White?
This rings of ideas reminiscent of the era before Civil Rights were gained in our country. White does not equal American. No race equals being American. We are Americans based on where we were born, if our parents were American, or if we were naturalized as citizens of the United States. The fact that there were people attacking this young man should not surprise us, especially since we have seen our president attacked and his being American questioned by “birthers” of the politically stupid that have come out of the woodwork in our country.
Our country is becoming less and less dominated by people who consider themselves White/Caucasian. The problem is that there are many Whites who fear this rather than embrace it as our becoming the melting pot for which our country is famous. Is this fear because there are those who are White who have acted in a racist manner toward those who are not and they fear retribution? Probably. Is it because there are too many Whites who simply do not know enough about other cultures and thus choose to fear them because it is easier than to learn about them and accept them? I think this is far truer than not.
This is not to say there are not racists of other colors than White. However, for those who are White, have you ever thought that is how they see you as well? Prejudice is the child of ignorance and fear. It knows no race, culture, or creed. If people are not willing to learn and take the chance to get to know others of differing cultural or ethnic backgrounds, then our nation is doomed to be run by racists such as those who spewed venomous words toward this young man. It should not be a case of a classy kid vs. racist jerks. Our country needs more people to realize that the only thing that truly sets us apart is our ignorance of one another. That can be bridged when one person steps forward with a smile and kind words. If enough people do that, then the hateful words and views of the few will be drowned out by the laughter and joy of friends of all races and cultures.

Equality for All

Before I begin this post, I want to set the record straight and explain that I am a straight male. I find the feminine figure in all its many shapes and sizes quite alluring. I state this as I have often been labelled as something else when I speak out on the issue I am about to address today. With that said, I will proceed.

There is a serious Civil Rights struggle going on in our country, that in some ways, mirrors the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. This time, however, it is not a matter of the color of a person’s skin that is the issue. Rather, it is their sexual orientation. There is a need to point out the covert and sometimes overt discrimination taking place in our country toward our homosexual brothers and sisters. They are being denied the right to marry. They are being denied the right to visit their partner if they are hospitalized. They are being denied access to the same services in some companies as their heterosexual counterparts can receive. These are examples of discrimination that needs to be stopped.

I recently read a news article about a couple in Washington State who wanted their favorite florist to provide flowers for their wedding. The proprietor, whom the couple had known for a while, politely told them she would not provide flowers for them due to her faith not condoning homosexuality. The article continues by trying to paint a positive picture of the proprietor as having hired gay employees and having gay customers in an attempt by her and her lawyers to show she is not a discriminatory person. The term they used in the article for her reasoning not to provide flowers was that she was a conscientious objector. Conscientious objector?!? This is not her being called to fight in a war. She runs a business that is open to the public. As such, she needs to provide service to whomever has the monetary means for them. It sounds a little like the time when Blacks in our country would have to wait in separate areas or go to the back door of a restaurant to be served.

This is not an isolated incident. National headlines have shown major corporations, restaurants, and civic groups taking an anti-homosexual stance either in open practice or in the causes to which they contribute. They are temporarily boycotted, picketed, or subject to a ‘kiss-in’; however, the media’s thrill for the story dies down and the status quo kicks in again.

Those who advocate for Gay Rights need to think about taking some pages out of the Civil Rights Movement’s playbook. They need to organize marches, sit-ins, speeches, letter writing campaigns to politicians, media advertising, and other non-violent methods to get the public’s attention to the violations of civil rights that they face on a daily basis. One way to do this would be to combat one of the oldest stereotypes about homosexuals, particularly males. That is the myth that gay men are pedophiles. They are not. A pedophile is a social deviant who preys on children. A homosexual is simply someone who is attracted to their own sex (and age range). They do not want to rape children or even each other. The majority of homosexuals, male and female alike, simply want to fins someone special to spend their lives with like so many heterosexuals do freely.

Our gay brothers and sisters should be free to live their lives and receive the same rights that heterosexuals have. They need to be free to live without being stigmatized, ostracized, or demonized. It is time for equality for all people.

Paths to the same Eternity

The idea that we are at war with any religion is ludicrous. We are at war with extremists. We are at war with those who believe that they have the right to harm others to further their cause. Religion plays no real part in the war in which we are now engaged. The only ones who believe so are the extremists on their side and on our side.
Recently, a so-called member of the media called for the extermination of those who are Islamic in faith in the event the perpetrators of the tragedy in Boston happened to be Islamic. In doing so, he placed himself at the level of those who call for the extermination of all Christians as well as those who once called for the extermination of the Jews. Hate is not the cornerstone of any of the main religions of the world. Jesus preached that Christians were to love everyone. Mohammed preached to care for others and that is a basic tenet of the Islamic faith. The Jewish faith calls for love as well. Buddhism calls for peace and love. There is no call for killing anyone based solely on faith. We are at war for a variety of reasons, but none of them is about religion.
Rather than listen to the idle ramblings of the extremists, we need more people to speak the truth that we are in this world together. We may not like one another, but we need to do our best to get along by finding the common ground we share as humans and focusing on it rather than one what divides us. We may even find out that our religious beliefs are not that different either. We are all on different paths to the same eternity. If we would just focus on the journey rather than the path, we might get along better.

Civil Rights Crisis being ignored

There is a civil rights crisis in America that remains unspoken. It has nothing to do with Blacks, Hispanics, or Asians. It concerns the indigenous people of America. The very people who settled here long before the first European landed on the shores of our land. The Native American people remain the most impoverished in our country and rarely do we ever hear about them. Rarely do we find campaigns waged on their behalf finding their way into mainstream media. It is almost as if they do not exist, except for old movies where they are depicted as savages or drunks. It is shameful that we allow these noble and great people to live in squalor that matches or rivals that of third world countries. They were here first. It was our ancestors who drove them from their lands, made treaties that we broke, and continue to keep them locked in a vicious cycle of poverty. They need and deserve to be heard. They need and deserve to be given the skills necessary to achieve a higher standard of living.
According to Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, 25.3 percent of Native Americans live in poverty and 29.9 percent do not have health insurance. They further state that most tribes do not have casinos or even much tourism due to their remote locations. They give a stark example of how bad it is through a reference to the Blackfoot Reservation located in Montana. Here the unemployment rate is a staggering 69 percent. That is unacceptable for a people who once lived prosperously across our country.
Aside from the location of many of the reservations that the United States Government forced upon the Native Americans being remote from urban areas where employment might be found, the problem of low high school graduation rates hinders a better life for Native Americans. According to an article from Diverse-Issues in Higher Education from 2010, “fewer than 50 percent of Native American and Alaska Native students from the Pacific and Northwest regions of the U.S. graduate from high school.” Graduation rates for Native Americans as a whole “average 46.6 percent” across our country while the graduation rate for other ethnicities in the U.S. range from a high of 77.9 percent for Asians to 50.8 percent for Hispanics (Diverse). Among the reasons given for the high dropout rate for Native Americans, according to the article, are “lack of student engagement, perceived lack of empathy among teachers, passive teaching methods, and lack of parent involvement.” These are problems that can be solved in the educational realm provided the funding exists and teachers are well trained for the needs of Native American students. This is not unlike the widespread efforts that continue to assist students who are speakers of other languages that exist in our schools. The article points out a list of strategies needed to “reduce dropout rates. These strategies include avoiding policies that demean, embarrass, harass, or alienate native students; providing opportunities for students’ involvement in their language and culture; and better preparation for educators who work with American Indians.”
Again, this is much like what educators in areas having large Hispanic or other immigrant populations already must learn and practice in order to reach their non-native students. In those situations, we have dual language classrooms in some areas and mandatory workshops on strategies needed to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). In Florida where I taught, for example, all teachers need at least 60 hours of ESOL training and those teaching English/Language Arts need 300 hours in ESOL training or an ESOL endorsement on their teaching licenses. We also had many schools where the diversity of their students was celebrated through cultural activities highlighting all cultures.
Native American students should be encouraged to learn and share their native culture within their schools. There should be lessons where their cultural diversity should be integrated within the curriculum along with the diversity of the other cultures within their schools. For those Native Americans who are educated on schools located within reservations, they need teachers who are well trained in the culture of the tribe or tribes that are located within the reservation. Those teachers can then embrace that culture and utilize it to enhance the curriculum that will enhance student learning and understanding. Along with this, there needs to be more technology within Native American schools so that the students are able to master the skills necessary for them to bring jobs that are more prosperous to their communities. Native American parents need to be encouraged to get involved in their student’s education through volunteer opportunities. Native American schools need to encourage adults who lack job skills to gain them through classes geared toward their needs. The cycle of poverty that appears rampant on many reservations can be curtailed with education that is delivered in harmony with their cultural beliefs.
Along these lines, more needs to be done to address the severe poverty that grips many who live on the more remote reservations. While tribal laws can sometimes be complicated, surely there must be some way that tribal leaders and those outside the reservations can work together to come to some way to assist those living on reservations in gaining a better infrastructure both physically and technologically. In an ever-increasing global economy, being remote from urban areas should be a bridge that is easily crossed through better technology and technological skills.
Why are we as a country choosing to ignore the situation faced by many Native Americans? Part of their situation is due to our past practices in attempting to exterminate them from what were their lands in the first place; this includes forcing them onto reservation lands that were either far from their native lands or into portions of them that are distant from infrastructure that could assist them in bettering their situation. Therefore, it should fall in part onto us to help them change their circumstances for the better.
As with all of my posts to this blog, I know I do not have the all the answers to the problem. However, I do want to give some food for thought that will hopefully bring about a change for the better.