No Lives Matter

Disclaimer: If anyone is offended by anything I say below… GOOD.

I’m sick of this.  There is no one life that matters more than another.  Period.  I have come to realize that we are all of one race.  The human race.  My father raised me under the idea that color doesn’t exist.

But do you know what I see as I look out across society?  Color exists.  Perhaps not to me, but certainly to nearly everyone else out there.  The worst part is that this is self-inflicted.  I’ve been speaking about it for years, the sort of reverse racism I’ve seen growing in the black and Hispanic communities.  Specifically, within black communities, I’ve seen them decry more and more the institutionalized racism being perpetrated against them.

It’s no more rampant now than it ever was in times past.  Do you want to know what the difference is?  It’s being raised to think that slavery still exists, and let me tell you, it does exist, even if it is only in their minds.  And this could be the most dangerous idea of them all.  It’s the idea that my people were wronged in the past and so I’m being wronged right now.  It’s the idea that because my people suffered, I too, am suffering.

Get over yourself.  Grow up and change your life.  Stop pointing the blame at things that have absolutely no relevance in today’s world and take a step forward.  Stop perpetuating the stereotypes.

Living in the past only brings about hate.  I say this as a card carrying member of the Cherokee Nation.  The tragedy of the past, while it should never be forgotten, will NOT dictate the course of my life, because I refuse to allow it to do so.  I alone am in control of what comes to pass in my life.  The blame, where there is blame to be found, is on me.

You see, it seems as though we’ve started a war which began within ourselves.  An idea that systemic mistreatment exists because we collectively say so.  Even when evidence points directly to the contrary.  Is there “white privilege”?  The argument can be made for it, sure.  Are “minorities,” (a laughable term at best), specifically blacks, really being targeted by police or government?  No, not in the way the media would have you believe.  Are there bad officers?  Duh.  But are there THAT many bad officers?  No.

I am a man who believes very strongly in personal liberties.  I believe in the freedom to be able to choose how I live my life and what that looks like.  I also believe that my freedoms are currently in danger as we race ourselves toward martial law.  In light of recent events, the cancellation of certain peaceful assemblies would fly directly in the face of our rights as Americans and yet, we can blame no one but ourselves for allowing such hate to have such a hold over us.

In short, we’ve forgotten to love.  Those who are liberal minded ask why can’t we all just get along, and all the while the conservative Christian is proclaiming love while living in hate.  (Yes, I generalize, before you get all butthurt over this statement.)  The reality is that the vast majority of us have chosen a camp where we feel all warm and squishy, or at least a place where think we fit in based on our current beliefs.  But what if I told you those things were all a lie?

We run to church and look for answers in the bible, searching for verses to boost our self-righteous morality.  We run toward groups of like-minded individuals who foster our hate for organized Christian faiths while proclaiming the rights of Muslims because we hate Christianity.  Do you see the feedback loop going on here, regardless of which direction you choose?

This isn’t a treatise on the wrongs or rights of organized religion, regardless of belief.  This is a plead for humanity.  However, I’ve come to the realization that this exact thing is humanity.  The mob mentality, even over something like social media, has taken root and caused far too many of us to lose our minds in the process.  We’ll all say that the mob mentality is devoid of reason, yet we fall for it every time because we are standing up for what we believe is right.  Welcome to your humanity.

And so, our humanity has caused us to do inhuman things.  America right now is tearing itself apart, piece by piece, and I get a front row seat.  How we determine our morality has always been philosophically based on societal norms, and so I sit here quietly and wonder what that is going to look like in the future as so many seek to unseat the morality of the bible in their quest to redefine what morality looks like in the face of current events.  Is the morality of the future Sharia Law?  Will it be defined by some arbitrary turn of phrase or perhaps a dictator?

At the end of it all, no matter what comes, just remember to look yourself in the mirror when placing blame.  Whether through our action, or for many of us, through our inaction.  What we allow to come to pass can be just as detrimental as what we directly influence.  The future is in our hands, not found in the past, but found in the choices we currently make as a collective whole.