Republicans have money and power, but the downside is they have to deal with nuts in their own party. A recent case in point was a G.O.P. state senator in Arkansas who said slavery was beneficial and another who wants to deport all the Muslims. (I guess he might be considered a liberal by some Republicans, because he doesn't talk about deporting gays.) Now, many other Republicans disavowed these inflammatory statements and want nothing to do with them, which is to their credit. I am amused and a little horrified that people in power think such things in 2012, even after all of our education and culture and refinement and instant access to information in the modern age, but I am glad they are saying them because it is better that such thoughts come out into the open where they are exposed for public consumption.
In Georgia not long ago, a Republican state senator said he wanted to cane marijuana users, I imagine in addition to, rather than instead of, ten years' imprisonment and severing the fingers and gouging out the eyes. There certainly is a lunatic fringe in the Republican party that has let their hostility and resentment and anger get away with them. They seem driven by negative forces of darkness that lead them into hatred and violent thoughts directed towards others. The irony is that the very thing these conservative Republicans despise so much, marijuana, might be the best medicine for their souls to put them back in touch with the Mother.
Getting back to the Arkansas state senator who said slavery was okay, I would just like to add that I've heard that line before, but always from white people, never from black people. I don't think white folk should presume to know (or even if they presume, they should never say) what was good for another people, especially when it comes to an institution with horrible tortures and misery and abuse and death. I mean, one could argue starvation was good for Ireland and that would be equally offensive to the Irish, besides being heartless. Such thoughts lead one into error and are symptoms of erroneous thinking, of a lack of compassion to be specific.
It may be that black folks are pleased to live in North America today rather than in the coastal region of Western Africa, but it does not follow that they would ever feel good about slavery, which caused so many needless deaths and suffering. Anyone who has studied history knows that a large portion of the slaves died on the voyage from Africa to the New World due to the abominable conditions below deck. The slavers were cruel, lazy and stupid and simply accepted losses as part of their business expense because they were business criminals. I am proud that my father supported civil rights and helped blacks when and where he could in the times past when help was needed. For my part I do not see blacks as blacks but as people, and I know that each person is different, that skin color is superficial, and that inside is a unique personality and identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment