I know I am supposed to tell you that America’s best days are still ahead of us. And that when we have defeated those who try to tear us down, it will be worth the struggles we are currently plagued with. We will claim the nation that our forebears dreamed of.
I always try to be an optimist and believed all the above, but I’m not sure that reality is even possible anymore? There is just too much “Gloom and Doom” that overshadows that rosy scenario. There are too many nonsensical conspiracies now. Too many big lies about the important stuff.
And perhaps worst of all, is that in 2020, 74 million Americans voted for one of the single most reprehensible human beings on the planet, despite his staggering four-year attempt to show them how grossly unqualified and morally incapable he was of leading. His ineptitude, immorality, and autocratic thoughts were somehow not deal breakers but selling points.
Is the chasm is too deep now?
- How can we ever find common ground with those who insist on dehumanization of everyone who doesn’t think and look like them now?
- How can we engage in a conversation on critical issues with people whose realities are so malleable?
- How can we move forward when so many are living perpetually backwards, longing for the “good-old-days” when fewer people had the voice or vote, and they had all the control?
History clearly tells us that the more we tolerate brutality and discrimination, the more normal they become. Our present normal makes it virtually impossible to grow into something that is truly beautiful.
I am in my final years now, I am simply too tired to keep on fighting, so I guess I will just ride a bit longer and see what happens. The same people who have tried to marginalize so many are at work on me… I just don’t know if I have the strength to tolerate them much longer.
RJ's Corner 
You wrote, “History clearly tells us that the more we tolerate brutality and discrimination, the more normal they become.” When it becomes the norm to discriminate, the editor of a local paper feels no shame in writing this section, quoted from the St. Tammany Farmer, 22 JAN 1898, pg. 2., espousing a view that I fear many in my state of Texas share: “It is true . . . that the mass of negroes are not fit to enjoy the right of suffrage, and that is the reason why the people of Louisiana are going to hold a constitutional convention for the purpose of so restricting the franchise as to eliminate them from politics.” He then goes on to exclaim that “negroes are very useful citizens and their bone and muscle have aided to a vast extent in making the South . . . rich and prosperous.” This was after a similar tirade against women attending college with men. Reading old newspapers for genealogical research, I come across these sentiments espoused quite frequently, out loud, with no worry about how history would view the writers. When I was growing up in the mid-1950’s, relatives and shopkeepers and even pastors said the same things. We’re not so very far in time or actions from this, as Texas is proving with its disenfranchisement efforts.
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