We think we have moved past this kind of garbage. I constantly hear conservatives, and libertarians proclaim they are not bigots, yet when the time comes to open their mouths, say that law is wrong, all I hear is crickets. I at times hear a cough, but mostly crickets. We stand in awe of that which cannot be seen, as I have heard it said, we cannot really see that past through our eyes, and we stand in awe of the events we hear from others who did see it with their own eyes.
My great grandmother was fond of saying that the past was a dream, the present a reality, the future a mystery. She would continue on by saying that when we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it. Though out my life, I have made it a point to study history, the views of people who lived it, the people who created it, even if I do feel they were subhuman or demons in the flesh. But what has happened is a revision of history. And that is dangerous for everyone.
It has little to do with people not knowing the true history surrounding events, that is bad enough, but it allows for people to tinker with the present and future. If we do not know the truth of history, we will not realize that it is being repeated. Throughout history slavery was allowed, and a realization crept into the minds of people, it was wrong. It would fade away. Before Europeans came to the Americas, slavery was something of the past. It came back because people had forgotten, or not even known about it, but greed has its own role in it.
It stayed with us, even through the attempts of the founding fathers to create a nation where all men were equal. To some extent, I would like to think that this applied to women as well, but the truth is, once married it did not. The truth was, in some areas, a single woman over the age of 18 had all the rights and privileges as a man, until married, but even then, she could retain her rights if she had a contract stating so with her husband, signed before the marriage. It wasn't until people said women never had rights, and people did not know their history that they lost those rights.
Women became second class citizens, and it is happening again. African-Americans, are having the same problem. They were given their freedom, yet they are still largely relegated to the status of second class citizens, something we revisited as late as WWII when we pulled a Germany card, and locked them away in camps, and today with people we suspect are terrorists. We are doing this to the poor as well. The past was forgotten, and we repeated it with glee in our hearts, and merriment on the brain. We did it for safety. Don't believe me, look at the early drug laws in this nation, and who they targeted, it was not the white christian guy, it was the minorities, specifically black people.
People think I have an issue with the Bush family because of their political leanings, I do, but that isn't the bulk of my problems with them. This stems from the behavior of Prescott Bush, who supported nazi Germany. He made a great deal of money through the blood and suffering of the Jewish people. But it has been largely revised, no mention of it made, except when you dig enough, you will find that granddaddy Prescott was being investigated by several federal agencies while he was a sitting senator. Ford also benefited from this exchange, and that too was revised; relegated to something of a rumor put into place by rivals.
The leader of nazi Germany is no longer inspired by christian ideals, and if you hear some the Holocaust was grossly over exaggerated. It makes it simpler to repeat the process. You will hear people now proclaim that slaves were treated well by most owners, it makes it easier to go back to slavery when the majority feel it wasn't that bad. Really, slavery still happens in the US, are you surprised? The bulk of these slaves are sex slaves and labor (maids). Of course the larger scope of it, are those who make minimum wage, but that is something well covered in this blog. Well into the 50's and 60's signs hung in businesses and other places that said "No coloreds allowed", and we apparently have forgotten it, as now in some places there are signs that read "No gays allowed".
Discrimination is discrimination, and no matter how much you rail against it, no amount of revisionist history will change it. People like Limbaugh are racist, and homophobic, but rather than dawn their hoods and robes, they hide it in innuendo. You can claim that people are reaching, but it doesn't change what they are. They are not heroes, and by you defending them, you are no hero. In a land of liberty, why should it matter who is what?
No comments:
Post a Comment