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A fist in the air

/in /by

I waited as long as I could to type these words into my computer because I was praying for the inspiration needed to provide some words that might be appropriate for any readers whose eyes might find their way in front of them.

I have lived now through two shootings of Presidents – Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. My extended maternal family includes four who were killed and one who was wounded – Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt.

When the news announced the shooting of President Reagan, I remember the fear and worry for he and Nancy brought on me when I heard and saw it. I looked up to them both. But I also looked up to President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who I had known since childhood. That use to be OK, you respected and looked up to those who took on the mantle of leadership that we gave them.

I was preparing to entertain at a concert Saturday night, when I was told by some attendees about the shooting of President Trump. I have never met him, although I have shook hands with Don, Jr. and know many who are in his circle from my time serving as a local elected official. Unlike the others listed above, I have no familial ties with the Trump family, so other than the fact he has always been part of my life through his media exposure and seeing all he did and tried to do for Americans like myself during his four years in office, he has my appreciation as my president.

At the concert, I led those who attended in prayer for President Trump, for the others shot and their families and for all who were forever changed by witnessing this. I prayed for our country, for our leaders, that our shared love of America could bring us together to further the principals of this great experiment created under the greatest generation of thinkers and patriots to ever live.

It was many hours later that I was able to become more familiar with what came to pass through the videos and eye witness accounts available online. The strength of spirit exhibited by President Trump under fire and threat of fire was amazing. The love and dedication of the men and women in that crowd who also stood their ground under fire and were more concerned about the president, protecting their families and their fellow attendees than themselves. Had the crowd ran rather than going to the ground, many more could have been injured. The selfless attendees who responded to help those who were shot and comfort those with them was inspiring. And the outpouring of support for the victims and their families is heartwarming. My prayers go out to the family of Corey Comperatore, who gave his life protecting his family, and the other injured victims whose names I do not know.

As I write, the Republican Convention is underway and President Trump is now the nominee and he has just named his running mate as Senator J.D. Vance. Despite the fact that such an outcome was a couple of millimeters from not occurring just 48 hours earlier, President Trump and the American political process is moving on.

I will not sugar coat the fact that what I have seen the last couple of days has moved me greatly. I have found myself holding back tears several times. That is why I wanted to write these words. I know I cannot be the only person who is hurting by seeing what happened. To see where the country I love has come. To see the work my family members fought and died for beginning in 1775 all the way up to the present being treated so recklessly. Now, I know this is not new, obviously based on the list of cousins I have lost to this type of violence. On many occasions, my ancestors would challenge someone to a dual over a point of pride or a political difference if that difference was pushed to insults. That is true of many of our leaders especially in the first 125 years of our republic.

Civil society left those practices behind by in large decades ago. But perhaps that is the problem, perhaps we are once again moving away from a civil society. Impressionable people are being brainwashed by others – politicians, educators, media and others to the point of violent acts to get whatever it is they want or whatever they have been taught will save the world. Is this the direction we want for our future?

Granted our ancestors fought a Civil War when we could not solve our political differences; we overcame political differences, social, political, economic and equality ills struggling forward during the suffragette, labor, and Civil Rights movements, and many were injured and died during these struggles. But in my opinion those brave men and women were struggling to further the more perfect union ascribed to and dreamed upon by our founders. And through the years, we marched ever closer to that realization of those hopes.

I saw a man last Saturday get up off the stage, bloodied by an assassin’s bullet, probably somewhat angered, probably greatly worried about his family and those who had come to see him, who defiantly and boldly reached his fist in the air not knowing if another shot might be close at hand to take him out. The words he chose to say to Americans was “Fight, Fight, Fight.” In my opinion he was letting everyone know that he was OK and no matter what happens not to give up on our country. That video and the images captured around it were those that photographers live a lifetime hoping to snap. They will endure as long as America does. I pray that Americans can see it is time for our country to come together and work in unity rather than spending our time fighting among ourselves. Otherwise, we won’t have a country to fight over, because our enemies, many who are within our borders, are inch by inch working to take America and the founders dreams for it away from us.

America – a reality show?

/in /by

I grew up in a politically active family. My parents supported various local, state and national candidates and then became influencers encouraging neighbors, friends and strangers to support their bids for the office they were seeking.
This was done by ringing doorbells, hosting social gatherings, attending rallies, placing signs and a lot of talking. I could barely walk the first time I remember standing at a door with my mother as she shared the qualities of a local candidate running for county commission.
I was scrolling through social media the other day reading opinions on the shifts in Southern politics from one party to another based on the passage of the Civil Right Amendment.  I came along after that monumental legislation and watched the continuing struggle to live up to those standards and heard the thoughts of whites and blacks from the city too busy to hate – Atlanta in the 1970s. My greatest template of course came from my parents, and especially from the point of view of my mom – a business woman, who began her own business in the 1950s, and in the 1970s supported the Equal Rights Amendment.
During those years however, I never once heard the topic of race discussed in my parents’ personal political conversations.. There were  no dog whistles used, just finding candidates that had a desire for equal opportunities for all, good paying jobs, potential for education, and rising out of poverty. Those were the priorities for a family fighting its way up from the farms of Appalachia to a successful life in the city.
Many city folks looked down upon the rurals that migrated into the cities to find better jobs and opportunities. Often times we found ourselves segregated into mill villages or the neighborhood remnants of the former because that is where the housing was most affordable. Some quickly worked to conform and cloak their origins by adapting to fashions, norms, speech patterns and doing everything to make opportunity more likely and climb the social ladder. When one could afford it, families moved to nicer neighborhoods and melted into the city landscape leaving the cotton, corn and hayfields behind.
These were the steps that my folks walked and succeeded in working their way up through the economic class barriers. Was there racism? Of course, there was. Even if families didn’t see it in their own lives, the worst of it was piped into our homes through the evening news. Was there discrimination based on class, sex, ethnic background, area of origin? Of course, there was. But then we went out into the streets from our homes and found a way to live, work, play, attend school, and survive together.
Was it easy? No. People struggled. People argued and fought. People disagreed. In the 1970s, I saw my folks and many others like them began a shift from FDR Democrats towards Republicans largely because of the news media pumped into our homes. The endless coverage of long haired, unkept people who were protesting against America and all that my parent’s generation held dear – a country where someone could come from nothing, work hard, and create a better life for the next generation. A land where people are self-reliant and aspire to greater opportunities. That is what our family has known since before the country’s founding.
My mother looked at women who like her desired the passage of the E.R.A. sharing other more radical points of view that she could not support, so she walked away. My father and she moved to being more Independents, sometimes supporting Democrats which did not seem to align with any of these hippie notions and choices and sometimes supporting Republicans.
The radicals and the alignment eventually of Democrat candidates to their causes shown on television caused that shift. Until those days, my folks and theirs before them would have been described as yellow-dog Democrats since the days of the Civil War.
Today, I see similar images and thoughts as seen in the 1970s of those who wish to tear down all that my parents taught me to hold dear about this country. Since the Twitter and Facebook feeds and the 24-hour news media floods our phones, TVs and computers, with images of protests, raucous rhetoric, and violence targeting authority figures, another shift is coming. Just like it did for my folks, these images and philosophies will likely move more people to walk away and aspire to the ideals which gave us the American experience.
I grew up in a South where opportunities were opened up by the struggle for civil rights for blacks and for women. These peaceful protests sometimes marred with violence from the opposition were ones my folks did support. Many today wish to act like that struggle did not succeed and once again our nation’s citizens are fighting for similar rights. I witnessed the changes effected by the struggles of the blacks and women of greatest generation and the oldest baby boomers, they changed the world and it is a better place because of their actions. To try to throw us back to that place again and erase all those gains, does a disservice to generations who struggled to lift us out of the depths of that past.
What is the reality show of America? We do our best as a country when we all come together and find middle ground, compromise, and push the American experiment forward. While some may not agree with where we are going, we are now finding the new middle. The question is will the middle be closer to the left or the right. Will everyone find their way there or will some be so lost that it causes our country to split down the middle. Only time will tell.

Whose America will it be?

/in /by

As I place these words to paper, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election is yet to be decided.
I would like to join the throngs of those saying the rhetoric has made this one of the worst election seasons in history, but I know as a student of history many before have been as bad or worse, they just were not in our lives.
I will say this, it has been one of the worst that I have seen but the greatest difference is the violence that has been carried out by individuals who chose to attack persons, steal or vandalize property because they expressed a different preference in the race.
Assuming that the votes are in and tallied and a winner of the popular vote declared, after the electoral college meets next month to finalize our process, then there will be a new president elect who will take office in January.
It is time now for our country to come together and heal from the political turmoil of the last 18 months.
Whomever is the victor, whomever is the loser, ultimately what is important is we are Americans. We are all Americans and as that we should rise to a higher standard and treat one another with the respect that our forefathers and mothers would expect.
Generations struggled, fought and died so that we may enjoy the fruits of their labor and sacrifice and build upon their shoulders. We owe them and ourselves the effort of reaching for the stars and walking a path to make our country a place where we see each other through the eyes of understanding.
We should be able no matter where our hometown is, to walk down our streets safely, enjoy the opportunities to pursue our dreams, whether that means, raising a family, working a job, or running a business, possibly providing jobs for others.
We are Americans, in the wake of this election that is what we are first, no political ideology should have precedence over who we are because that one element is what has provided the strength that has allowed our country to prevail throughout our history.
If we spend our time fighting amongst ourselves, we will never notice the threats aimed at our republic from outside or miss those individuals on the inside with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar wishing to do harm at home.
Assuming as I write, that there are no more post-election revelations that upturn the normal order of things, I encourage you to pray for our country, pray for our new leader, but most of all pray for the healing of the wounds that have been inflicted upon our country and its people from many sources in recent years.
We are better than what is seen on television, newspapers and on the internet. So, remember what America is and will be is up to us. Don’t disappoint, start by loving your neighbor as yourself. One person at a time, that will be a legacy, we should build upon.