The Great Divide(r)

One of the reasons I believe a certain segment of the population has been so openly hostile to President Obama is the realization, conscious or otherwise, that the so-called browning of America has reached the highest point: a black man in the White House. For the prejudiced or outright racist who have seen people of color become more and more prominent in American life, it seems like at least the presidency was something “they” wouldn’t get; the last safe bastion against the encroachment of people of color in all spheres of American society. Then it happened. And with that, directly or not, the subject of race has come to the forefront.

Clearly, white resentment has not been couched in ambivalence, as we see every day, from how the President is disrespected to the deplorable reactions to the murder of unarmed black men, women and children at the hands of the police. One of the signature claims of that resentment is that Obama has divided the country. It’s that mentality that led a Trump surrogate in Ohio to state there was no racism before Obama. Yes, she got bashed for making such an absurd statement and, at first, my reaction was that I was witnessing an instance of yet another conservative believing their opinions are fact and, as such, are not subject to scrutiny. (See Antonio Sabato Jr. claiming at the most recent GOP convention that he believes Obama is a Muslim, and that his confidence in that belief is enough to make it true.) But in all fairness, what she did was articulate very badly what many like her truly feel: that issues of race and racism are now and have been discussed more in the last 8 years than in the previous 30 or so. And that makes bigots, active or passive, very, very uncomfortable. That’s what she meant.

Whether it’s tacit acknowledgement that folks who have suffered various degrees of ignominy might want payback in more ways than one or just their full-on overt racism, the prospect of being on the receiving end of that purported payback, and that they’d be punished even half as badly as the hurt inflicted on people of color, rattles and scares them to their core. It leads to instances of tragic irony, too. I mean, is there anything more un-American and unpatriotic than to threaten the stifling of dissent using the US flag as cover? You know, the same flag that represents the freedom to protest.

Density or denial? I guess that if the result is the same, it doesn’t matter, right?

Oh, Look...A Unicorn!

With every passing day I feel more and more the desire to see this country formally separated. As a 50-state nation we are doomed; the divisions between us have become too great to overcome. We have masses of people who scorn knowledge; who think the gun slaughter of innocent people is some sort of ‘aw, shucks, just the cost of business’ parallel; who only see partisan politics where the water of a town has been poisoned and innocent people have been killed or irrevocably disabled mentally because of this; and view the imposing of their religious beliefs on everyone as par for the course. I am vehemently opposed to all those things but I believe in freedom, and have soured on the idea of helping those who do not want to be helped, which is why I think those folks should continue to pursue those ideals in their own country. Fine by me. But that's NOT a country I want to be a part of. And I'm not gonna leave, so...

 

However, I have to acknowledge that maybe if I die of old age I might get to see it come to pass. But I'm not holding my breath. For one thing, my utopia would have to face off with the politicians and other interests representing the hypocritical and ungrateful red states who are the biggest welfare queens this country has, enjoying the federal subsidies made possible by the tax revenue collected from prosperous blue states. Why should I pay an ever-increasing subway fare so that Mississippi can have paved roads on our dime, while they insult my fellow New Yorkers without remorse? (Btw, that bullshit happens here in our own backyard with our largely conservative upstate population but at least we're from the same state. Or something.) But I get it: no one wants to dismount from that gravy train. And they’ll want to fight us for our money, too. What a doozy!

 

Speaking of fighting…

 

I know I'm being reductive and oversimplifying—remember this is a rant from another nobody on FB, so bear with me—but while I’m aware there were many things to consider, I can’t help but think of the thousands upon thousands of people who died so that we could remain united with those who thought owning people was a God-given right. That was our mistake right there! Dude, WTF?! And the people I used as an example in the first paragraph might not be the actual descendants of those folks, but they are their spiritual children. Man, we need to break this shit off, yo. With the quickness. (Yeah, I know. But I’m old school, leave me alone.)

 

In the meantime, I'll keep dreaming, trying not to have a heart attack over every new instance of fresh bullshit lobbed this way, and hoping for a day when red states can TRULY pull themselves up from their own bootstraps (their corny sayings are so cute), fend for themselves and finally build that wall around Texas they've been promising us, to keep the reactionary folk inside where they belong. (Austin, we’ll hook you up, don’t worry. We got you.)

 

Oh, look...a unicorn!