Our Nation appears to be entering a unique but long -overdue moment; one, in our estimation, that is suitably describable, in the words of author, Malcolm Gladwell, as a “tipping point.” We seem to be at the initial stages of an unprecedented push for a reconciliation, between its avowed democratic aspirations, as fundamentally enshrined in its Constitution and system of laws, and the contrasting, empirical reality of its disappointing history. A public demonstration of the desire and need for a necessary rectification and reconciliation seems to be underway.
That spontaneous citizen response, with energy akin to a massive iron cauldron brought to a full boil, has been accumulating, and is, at present, actively and audibly roiling, demanding the need for the recognition and needed rectification, of that free and democratically equal Nation, intended and philosophically designed, by our Founding Fathers, and, the candid disappointing reality, of three- hundred- years, of empirical inequality and cruelty, with especial reference to its black population.
America’s historic conception and its institutional, pretensions to equality and inalienable freedom, as taught to successive centuries of schoolchildren, consistent with the Nation’s programmatic self- assertion as an avatar of human dignity, and universal equality may, euphemistically, be described, as somewhat “ spotty”, or, put more painfully, but candidly, as historically, inaccurate and pretentious.
In the interest of a balanced and rational perspective and in fairness, one might indicate, that our Nation has compared favorably with most other Nation States, relative to the extent of liberty and freedom, enjoyed by its citizens. This is particularly evident, in its contrast with autocratic entities, such as North Korea, China, Russia, Myanmar, the Banana Republics, and the stereotypical African Nation.
Nevertheless, our Democratic Republic, was specifically and philosophically created, as a unique moral exemplar of citizen equality and personal freedom, and not as a foil to corrupt or despotic regimes; and should, appropriately, be evaluated, in comparison with the singular, foundational principles of its own conception, in conjunction with its later ascribed, image.
To be included in today’s boiling National cauldron, as required recipe ingredients, are our Nation’s history of overt failures of its own democratically, declared, moral standards, including: the wrongful eviction of peaceful, Native Americans from their historically owned, arable homesteads in Southeastern America, by our federal government and the tragic events of their cruel displacement and removal to, “lands more suitable to savages,” viz., the dry, windy and barely arable, lands of Mid-West, Oklahoma, [ Read: “Trail of Tears”]; pursuant to xenophobic propaganda, tactically, presented and taught to our young schoolchildren as “Our Manifest Destiny,” but leading to the effective destruction of the valuable and irreplaceable, Native American culture; the inhuman, commercial importation and heartlessly immoral, forced use of Black people as slaves, [legally appraised, as “chattels” or, agricultural equipment] to be exhaustedly worked, unpaid and savagely mistreated; the tragic and unforgivable entry into an ill-conceived, Southeast Asian War, meaninglessly killing hundreds of thousands of human beings, and angrily dividing our Nation, upon some spurious, purported and blatantly false, government specter, of a future, “united communist bloc” in Asia; the Federal Government’s lobbied assistance to, and development of, an undemocratic and overly influential, multi-millionaire industrial class, self-servingly, insuring its continuance of industrial air pollution and resultant global damage, in pursuit of their mega-profits; the societly costly, suicidal, contemporary denigration of education, learning, and self-advancement, resulting in a vast population of semi-literate, reductionist, flat earth citizens and voters; the latter, credited with the unprecedented elevation to America’s Oval office, of an inept, egocentric, ignorant and bigoted neurotic, an embarrassing practitioner of everything, shameful and immoral, conceived and included within the human-miscreant playbook.
Added to the unsavory, non-miscible, odoriferous, content, of the hot cauldron, and skillfully blended with the plight of existentially fearful, quarantined citizens, protecting themselves from the potentially, lethal Covid-19 pandemic, is the plethora of gut-wrenching pictures and reports, of all-too-frequent, homicides, and acts of prejudicial abuse, hatefully and brazenly perpetrated, by municipally enabled, police, against fellow Americans, for the sole and insane reason, that they have elected to be been born in a black or brown color.
It is a rational assumption, that such, frequent instances of un-American (and inhuman) behavior, are currently being revealed and popularly circulated, due fortuitously, to the contemporary availability of smart-phone photography. There is no rational basis, whatsoever, for the denial of the assumption, that such atrocious, bigoted, un-American police behavior, has been institutionally and regularly practiced, long prior to the current, universal availability of such revelatory (photographic) facility.
We also see in the mix, swimming in the repugnant, blazingly hot, roiling cauldron of American bigotry, the rank atavism manifested in the adamant denial of man-made global damage, the ignorant and incapable, mishandling by the Trump administration of all matters, national and international, scientific and sociological (to include his revealed bigotry), most recently, dangerously demonstrated in the President’s exacerbation of the Covid-19 epidemic, by virtue of his ignorance, egotism, and ineptitude, as a catalytic, advancing the cauldron’s boiling point and its physically irresistible need for an available outlet for its, overwhelmingly, unbearable pressure.
This writing is intended as a hopeful report of our sighting of such a necessary outlet, in the gigantic overflow of dedicated, right-thinking Americans, in the multiple thousands, marching and peacefully, protesting, throughout America; black and white citizens, together as equal participants, the vocal young and the sign totting elderly, inclusive of some from the disabled community, across the entire Nation, all peacefully petitioning for reform; some, even foolhardily, risking infection from the extant epidemic, to have their presence noted and their voices heard, against the Nazi-style, military behavior; of so many of our white police, (“Black Lives Matter”) and, shamefully included, in the fiery and obnoxious mix, the casual disregard of the imminent, existential threat of global pollution.
We are greatly relieved and optimistically heartened, to see that the evil, hot cauldron of National bigotry and past wrongful behavior has finally, boiled over and that vast multitudes of right thinking, dedicated Americans, of every stripe, have now chosen, to make themselves heard, en mass, as peaceful and zealous aspirants for a just, equal and exemplary, Democratic Republic; one philosophically and empirically, consistent with the philosophical and idealistic intentions of its Founders.
-p.
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