Just Have to Say it

        There was a veritable landslide of comments, positive and negative,  emanating from a post I shared on FaceBook from Breitbart which showed a photo of President Obama being awarded the distinguished Civilian Public Service medal by the Secretary of Defense,  Ash Carter. The gist of the Breitbart  commentary was that the President had awarded himself the medal, and, of course went on to pile on the negative comments as to every single aspect of the man. In truth, only the Secretary of defense can authorize or confer the medal in question, and previous recipients include some lesser known individuals as well as George W. Bush, Steven Spielberg, and Bill Clinton. Of course there was no hue and cry about those awards.

        Many of the comments were offensive, and what was just as disconcerting was that those making them either refused to believe the facts surrounding the award or simply morphed into some other loathsome diatribe aimed at POTUS. In  fairness, some responses from the Left were also very personal in nature, aimed not at the issue, but at the  responders of the Right.

        I was curious about who the haters were and what their backgrounds were, so I looked at several of their FB pages.  One simply listed her location as "Potfarm," which was revelatory to me, another listed his education as "studied nuthin." This latter assertion was well borne out by his writing, trust me. In general all; these negative responses had several common features.

        First:  All are very  angry people. Although they have had zero interaction with the President, they are angry at him. They apparently aren't upset by policy or programs, but by a slew of vaguely general attributes such as "lyin', Mislim(sic), Commie, stealin', " and other assorted general insults.

        Second, few seem to have much education, or at least, so their attempts at writing would suggest. Many actually wrote strings of defamatory statements with no structure at all.

        Third, apparently these folks believe that every single thing they dislike about society today is the direct result of something POTUS did.

        Finally, they believe that only the media sources they use are telling the truth, even though the Brietbart item is a classic example of "Fake News"

        I have written all the above to say this: If you believe that a person's worth is tied to either a surplus or deficiency of melanin in their skin, you are a damaged human being. It is obvious from the general tenor of the vast majority of negative comments that those  respondents are bigots, and their comments racially motivated. One heinous example: a photo of Idi Amin with a chest full of medals and the comment, "obviously it's in his blood." To me, obviously, it's in the soul of this despicable writer. I would dare to opine  that this man is equally ill at ease with women's issues and LGBT concerns.

        I feel a sincere sense of sadness when I reflect on people who are damaged in this fashion. In the battle of nature vs. nurture, apparently nurture won in these cases. No child is born racist, and many of these folks are probably victims of their own parents. Again, being candid, this is just as true of Black racism as White racism. Both are crippling diseases, both are learned at home, primarily, and both are hard to shed as adults. We can readily identify the hard core, those who join the Klan, or those who see all police as the enemy. 

         It's harder to distinguish those raised in a more "genteel" racial/social bias  setting. Back in the day, these were the first to protest that "some of my best friends  are (Black, Jews, Hispanic, Gay, etc, etc.)." These folks may be in truth, the most dangerous, because, like say, Trey Gowdy, they oppose extending the Voting Rights Act of 1964's provisions because "they're not needed any more" when the truth is far simpler. There are far too many upper middle class Caucasians who are just as biased as the bitter respondents cited above, but their racism is at once more subtle and more dangerous because of that fact. These are people who sit on juries allegedly unbiased in matters of race, social standing or gender issues, but in truth, are not even close to that. Again, this cuts both ways, as the O.J. Simpson trial showed.

       Racism, and Social bias, black and white are  the great American diseases, and sadly,  have become more and more furthered by the other great American disease, fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity.  When coupled with inbred bias, formalized bias, which flies directly in the face of the teachings of the person for whom the faith is named, is a powerful and, sadly, effective, tool. The hatred streaming from organizations like Westboro Baptist Church is exemplary.  The KKK as well, prides itself on its "Christian" foundation while persecuting minorities of every stripe.  

        This next four years is going to challenge all of us who believe ourselves to be people of good will and balanced social attitude, to stand , be counted and refute the hatred. This means reaching out to all people and never hiding your feelings to "go along to get along."  

        That's about it, I just had to put it down in print.